Renewed Life
by Glacey Glace
Summary: Life can be a very strange phenomenon sometimes. One day you're a happy child, looking forward to the events ahead of you, the next, you're crying over your parents' newly made grave. A not-so hopeful umbreon adapted to this change, until walking out of a spiral of repetitive mourning, and jumping into a world he had no idea how to handle. How will he fare with this change?
1. The first step

_Why did it end up like this…?_

I found myself crouched over the gravestone I've come to be so familiar with. The calming wind blew over my ears and softly brushed them. You would think that coming to the top of the same hill for…. Eight years now? I think? Who knows at this point, I lost my perception of time after the events that transpired in the past. I had no reason to ever pay attention to the time, after all, it's not like I ever had to do anything on a schedule, I don't speak to, or even interact with anyone, so what's the point of schedule? The wind around me started to pick up, bringing my attention to the surrounding area and its vegetation. I glossed over the slowly graying clouds and the short, green grass lightly blowing in rhythm with the wind. The many trees to my back had luscious green leaves doing the same. I took in a deep breath, and turned back to the forest behind me. The interior of the forest was dark, and I mean dark. If I wasn't a dark type myself, I probably wouldn't have been able to navigate it as many times as I have in the past. The trees were tall, the grass was long, nothing out of the ordinary for a large forest.

You're probably wondering about the situation that I find myself in. I'm not any different from any other umbreon, I have glowing yellow rings on my appendages, although I'm a bit smaller than the average umbreon, I look exactly like any other with all regards besides size. I am in my teenage years, as for how old exactly…. Sixteen….. I think…. I've stopped keeping track of time, so I'm not one-hundred percent sure how old I am. Everything… every day after my eighth birthday has been the same thing, day by day, with maybe a few exceptions in between where nothing significant happened, but a small event may have transpired that set the day apart from the usual, but nothing worth remembering. For example, I may have run into some kind of civil pokemon who tries to take me somewhere, or maybe find a few items left behind from an unknown traveler. Nothing any more memorable than that.

 _I've had the same life for so long now…._

* * *

(^^^ These lines, when they don't have a character name under them, indicate flashbacks.)

I woke up from my small bed, a very comfortable straw bed that I've grown to love since my hatching. Here I am, waking up on my birthday, an eight-year old starting today. I've been very excited for my birthday for the longest time, so I jumped out of my bed very quickly, so ready to start off the day, to which I immediately tripped and fell face-first on the floor. You'd think that an eight year old eevee would be able to get out of his bed without falling down, but I tend to do so quite a bit. As soon as I got up, I pressed a paw to my head, and my mother came to my room wearing an indifferent expression.

"Kuro…. You really need to stop jumping out of your bed like that, one day you're going to give yourself a concussion." The newly entered vaporeon came over to her son and set a paw lightly on his head. "Also… Happy Birthday darling!" She then set her head next to mine and set a small kiss on my forehead. Slightly annoyed, but happy by the gesture, I rolled my eyes and then followed her down the hall to the rest of my home. The only other room other than bedrooms was our dining area, which had dirt walls that weren't the most pleasing to the eye, but still provided shelter and comfort. Our furniture was all made out of wood from the trees of the forest right behind our house that I have been scared to set a paw into ever since I was told certain stories about it from my Dad. All of our furniture consisted of a few chairs and a table, nothing more. It wasn't a lot, but I still found it very peaceful, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Although, I have also been told stories about towns in other parts of the world that contain large buildings, and even giant machines that fly you through the sky! I always thought the world was an amazing place.

I have always had such kind parents. They gave me a home that i've loved since day one. As we walked down the short, cave-like hallway built into a hill, I started to think about how my life has been since day one. My mother and father, a very caring vaporeon and leafeon, have always given me all of their love, and everything I've ever needed. They were incredibly kind pokemon. Even know we didn't really live near any kind of civilization in order to be in a safe environment, I can tell that if my parents were to interact with the ones outside, they would become friends, no matter the pokemon. I took in a small breath and prepared myself for the day ahead of me. I was very excited to have another day with my parents, and another day to have a fun time. This day will be an amazing one!

I've never been more mistaken in my life.

I walked outside the entrance to our home expecting to see my leafeon father greet me and wish me a happy birthday. What I found instead was him with three other pokemon, which I tried to dig through my head and recognize the species of. Because we live away from almost everything, I never see any other pokemon, but my parents have taught me about many other species, even a few legendaries, thanks to my Dad being so interested in myths, but even he doesn't know what a lot of legendaries are like. I recognized one of the pokemon as an absol, the one next to them being a flygon, which greatly towered over my father. The flygon looked to be talking to my father, as to what they were talking about, I had no idea. The last pokemon was a species I recognized all too well. It was an umbreon, standing behind both of their assumed acquaintances, but something wasn't quite right. The umbreon was eyeing me curiously, and had an almost lustful stare hidden within the red irises it held. It maliciously smiled and wandered over to its two companions and began to whisper to them. My mother then began to approach my dad with a careful pace, presumably to ask him who these pokemon were.

"Dear, who exactly ar-" My mother was cut off abruptly, and what had happened in front of my eyes was something I couldn't comprehend. The absol had stabbed its horn into my father, straight through his heart. My dad froze, obviously caught off guard. The absol then took its horn, and slowly dragged it up my father's body, all while a pool of blood poured out of his wounds and made the air thick. Once the absol got to the head of my Father, it began to charge up a blast of darkness, and then I was thoroughly scarred. My father's head had blown apart, the blood and bits of his brain and skull soaring through the air and landing all over, completely tainting the lovely area we lived in, especially the flowers we grew near the end of the cliff we lived by.

I slowly backed away, taking what felt like one step a minute, until I felt the rush of pain in my heart, I felt the tears run to my eyes, and didn't even try to prevent them from pouring out into a puddle below me. I tried to scream, I tried to call out to my father, but no words would form. All I could do is stand there in horror, staring at the assailants, and watch them go for my equally horrified mother. The flygon flew up towards her and grabbed her with its talons. While she was screaming her lungs out, a sound that would never leave my memory, the flygon quickly flew up to the sky, changed his position, and then plummeted down to the ground, promptly crushing my mother against the ground. Once more, the air thickened as crimson liquid spread throughout the nature surrounding our home. I looked at my mother's mutilated body, this time finding myself frozen, at a loss, not being able to move, not being able to feel. That was until… I looked over at the umbreon, only to see it start to bolt towards me at an incomprehensible speed.

The umbreon then pinned me down.

Its gaze still held the same amount of what I thought was lust in its eyes, it then slowly brought its face closer, and closer to me. It lowered its head beside my ear, and whispered.

"Now you're all alone, time for me and my friends here to have our fun." Her tone was sadistic, and I would have made a noise if I was anything short of terrified.

The flygon then came over to me and took the umbreon's place, pinning me down. I could tell that the umbreon was female, based on its voice, and judging from what murmuring I heard from the absol earlier, I could tell it was male. As for the flygon, it hasn't spoken. However, these thoughts weren't processing properly through my head. The only thing that I could feel was an immense fear for what may come next. I felt my entire body shaking, even under the massive flygon's grip, and I felt many cold chills go up and down my body as time passed. I thought they would kill me, slice open my body and decapitate me, fly me up to the sky and crush me, maybe just bludgeon me to death.

I wish they had killed me.

After a short while of being pinned down was passed, The absol and umbreon decided to do what they had planned. They didn't kill me, they began to….. Abuse me.

They did so many things to me, while all I could do was lie down… completely helpless. I felt hot tears continuously fall down my face, and I really wished that one of them would just kill me. I didn't care who did it, whether it be the umbreon and absol, who keep on violating and torturing me, or the flygon, who had still been standing over me, pinning me with a seemingly emotionless glare.

As I was laying down, painfully pinned to the ground, time passed. After what felt like days, but probably equated to two hours or so, The umbreon and absol finally stopped, and the flygon stopped pinning me, leaving red marks on my body where its claws had previously been. I didn't move… I couldn't move… No matter what I told my body to do. I just layed there, stuck, frozen in a puddle of vile fluids. The three of them began to turn away and walk into the forest, but not before all staring at me on the ground. I cast my gaze upwards, staring at them. The umbreon still had a malicious glint in her eyes, the same glint she had while she was abusing me. The absol put on a similar expression, but his was more smug. The flygon kept its iron mask on. It didn't speak a word or change its stoic expression, it just took its partners, and flew away.

I was now alone.

I looked over at the corpses of my parents, and felt a new stream of tears come to my body. I began weeping, still unable to comprehend what had just happened to me. My body finally started to listen to my movements after forcing it to do so. I stood up wearily, my legs were shaking harshly, as was the rest of my body. I walked over the the mangled corpse of my Mother and stared at her.

 _Why did this happen?_

 _Why did this have to happen?_

 _What did we do to deserve this?_

 _What can I do now that i'm alone?_

Before I collapsed, I decided there was one more thing I had to do here, one thing I had to do before I inevitably ran away and most likely died somewhere in the woods. I walked closer to my mother's corpse, and picked her up in my maw. I then brought her to the edge of the hill we lived on while using the still rising sun to guide me. I set her down, and then went to get my father to bring him here too. I vomited multiple times on my trips to bring both of my parents' corpses to the end of the hill, but I didn't care. I didn't care that I was carrying the dead bodies of my parents, I didn't care that their bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, I didn't care that I was probably going to die soon after I was done properly burying them.

I didn't care.

After I buried both of their bodies at the end of the hill and covered them up, I took some of the few non-bloodied flowers from the small bed, three to be exact. I placed a blue flower on one side of their buried bodies, a green flower on the other, and then a brown one in the middle. I walked to the end of the cliff that connected to the hill. I started down onto the rocks connecting with a fast flowing river below, an easy thought came to my head. After feeling the light wind blow past my ears though, I dismissed it, knowing it's not what my parents would have wanted me to do. I turned around and looked at the place that I just buried my parents, including the sickening trail of blood that led to the dug up spot with red grass. I then looked at myself, still covered in the umbreon and absol's vile fluids. I then looked out past the cliff once more… and found my voice.

I found my voice in the form of a blood-curdling scream, all while a waterfall was pouring out of my eyes. I screamed for about a minute straight, feeling my throat growing hoarse afterwards. I then bolted off into the forest behind my house, and ran with no goal.

There was one thing I was sure of however, I wasn't going to let myself die.

As much as I wanted to at that point, I know my parents wanted me to live.

I knew they wouldn't be happy in the afterlife if I died.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I died.

So I would live.

I had to live, no matter how painful it became.

* * *

I wandered away from my usual trails in the forest that I now know like the back of my paw. The beautiful, flowing green trees are still the same as they were when I was little. This forest is avoided by everyone who doesn't live here… so everyone except my late family and I. It get very dark, even during the day you can sometimes find yourself having a very small line of sight in front of you. After aimlessly walking around, looking for miscellaneous berries to eat, I decided to take a break and leaned up against a nearby tree.

This was my schedule:

Wander around the forest looking for food until about midday.

Climb up to the apex of the hill.

Pay my respects to my parents' grave.

Wander around the forest aimlessly until I fall into a restless sleep.

I have had the same format in my life for who knows how long now, and I can't say that I am exactly bored of it, but there is one feeling that I carry with me constantly, and that one feeling will never leave me. I can be sleeping, I can be fighting off ferals, I can be running, I can be praying, it doesn't matter.

I always have a constant feeling of emptiness. A feeling that this is how i'm going to live the rest of my life, following this schedule… until the day I die.

That is, until I figured I would try to do something I've never done before.

Until I decided to go find civilization.

Because my family and I have always lived away from everything, I've never been to the various towns I know are located outside of the forest that I reside in. I have seen a few civil pokemon travel into this forest every now and then, but I usually stay away from them, I've never talked to anyone that wasn't my parents, despite any attempts they made to communicate with me.

For this reason, even know I was set on my decision to find a town and try to find… something there, I was feeling quite a bit antsy. I didn't know how to interact with other pokemon, while my parents taught me what I need to know about being in a social environment, I've never put it into practice.

 _I guess it's finally time to put some of my parents' teachings to use… At least teachings other than battling... Hopefully._

Ignoring the tug of pain in my heart as I thought about my parents, I turned towards the exit to the forest and headed in that direction.

While I was walking, I looked down at the black fur on my paws. I also pressed one of my paws to the soft fur on my ears, right about where my golden rings are. I shuddered a little bit and kept walking.

It wasn't exactly my decision to evolve into an umbreon. I never really put any thought into what I would want to evolve into as an eevee, my evolution just kind of naturally happened for two reasons.

One: I always felt comfort within the moon, or nighttime in general. It was always quiet, and I was able to be alone with my thoughts wherever I went and rested, night became a time of blissful peace to me.

Two: My state of mind. As much as I don't like to admit it, my dark outlook on all of the things around me since my parents were killed may have triggered part of my evolution.

I was one with the night, and I had a very dark outlook on my situation, thus I became an umbreon.

However, I am scared of my own form.

Well, maybe scared wasn't the right way to put it, but I wasn't comfortable. Simply because I was abused by an umbreon on the worst day of my life, and that image of her lustful smile still makes me shiver to this day. Everytime I see the reflection of myself in a body of water, I get reminded of what that umbreon did to me, and what its companions did to my parents.

After shivering at the memories that were brought up in my head, I shook my body and continued walking down the trail I've come to be so familiar with. Before I knew it, I was outside the forest, and in the distance, I saw a group of buildings, some tall, some short, some designed, some plain, but overall, none were identical to one another.

I took one step out onto a new trail that seemingly led to the town, and I saw many civilians walking down the path. Most of them were in groups, holding conversations with each other, while others seemed to be going along with their day, with seemingly nothing bothering them. I tried to walk by without drawing any attention to myself, after all, this is my first time being around other pokemon that weren't my parents, and I didn't want to get into trouble less than five minutes after I left my home for the first time. Not to mention, if someone tried to address me, I would probably just do something stupid. Because of this, I hoped I would make it to the town without the issue of interaction with others.

If only fate didn't seem to think the opposite of everything I said.

Only about halfway to the city, while looking towards the end of the path, I saw a medium-sized dark-type pokemon walking towards me. I froze in my tracks as it continued to approach me, I was unable to move, my muscles didn't allow it.

The absol was about to cross paths with me.

I stood there, still frozen, and began to shiver. If I had any reason to talk, I wouldn't be able to form words in my mouth. I was completely petrified, worried about what would happen when the absol got to me and recognized me as the kid who he let go, the kid who knows what he did, and the kid that can be easily abused again. I felt more tears well up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. As soon as the absol got close enough to reach out a paw and touch me, I braced myself.

But nothing happened.

I opened my eyes and turned around to see that the absol had walked past me, and is seemingly continuing to walk despite the fact that I was standing less than ten feet away from him.

It was the when I realized.

 _I evolved._

The absol didn't recognize me because I had evolved, I looked completely different, and that plus the gap of… Eight years, means he couldn't recognize me.

I let out an enormous sigh of relief as my mind and body began to calm. I looked at the beautiful flowers planted in the grass around me. With this environment, and the realization I had just come to, I felt something that I had genuinely not felt in who knows how many years.

I felt at peace, and the ends of my mouth curved upwards a small bit. It wasn't a full smile, but it was the closest that I've come since my parents were alive. It was the first time since that day eight years ago that I actually felt hopeful, and was glad to be alive. However, that didn't deter me from the initial mission I set out to accomplish by coming here in the first place. If anything, it only boosted my confidence that, in due time, I can succeed in my goal. I didn't come to a town after so long without anything in mind, I wanted answers. I wanted to know who the ones who ruined my life were, and how I can make sure nothing like this happens to anyone else.

Using my thoughts as a mantra of sorts, I continued down the path to the large town I saw in the distance. I took a second to focus on my surroundings, namely the path I have been walking on for the past hour. I pressed my paws against the cold cobblestone path, feeling the individual stones. Some other parts of the path were also made out of dirt, which slid through my paws softly and occasionally got stuck in my fur. I always just brushed it off easily, it was never really a nuisance, if anything it was a peaceful change from the poison ivy and vines in the forest. I noticed a small wooden bench slightly ajar from the path, and I decided to head towards it. I have been walking for quite a few hours now, and despite not feeling very tired, I thought it would be a good idea to rest my muscles a bit, after all, I was about to go into a place that where I had no idea what to expect.

I finished my walk to the bench, and ran a paw across it, feeling the smooth wood that made up its construction, definitely different from the uneven and rough wood from the trees of the forest. I then sat down on the bench. The wind started to pick up a little bit, adding a perfect addition to the warmth of the weather. I decided to be alone with my thoughts for a bit, and spaced out.

 _I wonder what that town is going to be like…. I really have no idea what to expect. In fact, what are civil pokemon going to be like? I'd imagine that it would be similar to the way that my parents acted, but I can't assume everyone will be that friendly, if anything, they were in a minority. I just hope that nobody in this town is like… Them._

Once more dismissing the disturbing thoughts that kicked up in my head and sitting down for a decent amount of time, so I set my paws back on the ground and stretched out my muscles. I then continued my trek to the town in the distance, which was getting larger with each step I took. I saw many different species of pokemon walking around the town, whether it was a gardevoir looking like it was in an enormous rush, or an infernape walking slowly down the sidewalk.

Or the glaceon bolting directly towards me.

A skull slammed into mine, knocking me to the ground and sending me quite a distance. I felt a throbbing pain start to form in my head as I began to steady my body and put my weight under my legs once more.

After I finally managed to stand up, I looked over in the direction that I was rammed into from. There I saw a glaceon, sprawled out on the ground a small distance away from me. They seemed to be in a similar state of pain as well, as they placed one paw in their head and slowly rose up off of the ground. They then looked in my direction.

They locked eyes with me for a few moments, as if observing me.

I did the same back, trying to sense the glaceon's intentions.

Minutes passed, and finally, the silence was broken.

"I-I-I'm sorry! I was in a hurry! I wasn't looking where I was going! I wasn't paying attention! I have something important to do! I-"

The glaceon, female by the sound of her voice, began to blurt out many different things to explain why she ran into me. I tilted my head in slight confusion, wondering why she was so intent on explaining more than ten different reasons as to why she accidently slammed her head into mine.

After what seemed like five minutes passed, she was still slurring out her reasons to me. After I realized how long it's been going on, I took a step forward. She almost seemed intimidated by this, as she then stopped her gibberish to look at me once more. She almost looked… afraid. Afraid that she had done something that would cost her the life of her loved ones.

Afraid of me.

I sighed, and then brought my eyes to hers once more.

"It's not a problem, I wasn't in any kind of rush, so stop spouting apologies. I understand your situation, so don't feel bad for accidentally rushing into me."

The glaceon then tilted her head, seeming surprised that I didn't lash out at her.

"W-Wait, y-you're… not mad..?" The glaceon whimpered. "You're not going to hurt me?"

I cast her a sympathetic gaze. _It's clear that this glaceon is either very timid, or has a very negative outlook on strangers, but was she really expecting me to hurt her? Has this happened to her before and ended with the other hurting her? Or is this just how things transpire here with other civil pokemon?_

Doing away with my confusion, I responded to the glaceon.

"Why would I hurt you? It was just a simple accident, wasn't it? I have no reason to do anything to you." I felt sort of awkward talking to someone I wasn't familiar with.

The glaceon then, once more, stared at me with an almost dumbfounded gaze, as if she was expecting a completely different response. The silence began to make me even more uncomfortable, so I decided it was time for me to make my leave. I began to walk past the glaceon, making my way back to the town, when I was stopped once more.

"Wait!"

The glaceon shouted at me and I turned my head around to see her.

"What's your name? I haven't seen you around here."

Now it was my turn to be dumbfounded, why would she want my name? Aren't I just some random stranger that she was afraid of a few moments ago?

Regardless, I gave a short, simple response.

"Kuro. My name is Kuro." I then turned my head back in front of me, but I didn't move yet, as I was admittedly curious as to what her reaction would be. Needless to say, it wasn't what I was expecting.

"My name is Naru, nice to meet you Kuro!" I once again turned my head, only to see her giving me a bright smile. I felt my body tense, but I wasn't sure why.

The glaceon then turned around and continued on her way.

Shortly after, I began to enter the town.

The town that I entered was very lively, and surrounded by many tall buildings, as well as a large number of small buildings, seemingly houses. The entire place was paved with a smooth road of solid rock. It didn't feel rough at all, not like the slight roughness of the cobblestone path, it was completely smoothed out, and felt admittedly pleasant. After reveling in the thought for a bit, I continued down the road, observing all of my surroundings as I went. There was a huge variety of pokemon all around me, and while I recognized most of them, there were still quite a few that I couldn't quite place in my mind. My parents taught me a lot of species, but I suppose they missed a few… Or ran out of time.

I swiftly shook my head to get negative thoughts out. Now was not the time for negative thoughts, now was the time to search for answers. I picked myself up, and went into a nearby store for to get a bag, which I figured I was going to need somewhat soon. As I entered the store, the alakazam cashier greeted me with a smile, and I walked down the nearest aisle of the store. It was an enormous place, towering above other buildings, you really would sooner think this was an office building than your local grocery store. I then located the aisle where I would find a bag, and bought a brown shaded, decently large bag. While it was a decent size, it wasn't enough to hinder me from walking, or from any movement for that matter.

It was at this moment that I began to remember my parents again. I tried to stop the memories as best I could. Why was I reminded? Because of the purchase I made. Since I was never really allowed to leave home, I never had a way to earn poke, the same cannot be said for my parents, while neither of them would tell me their profession, they allegedly both did the same thing, earning more poke than we could ever need. For this reason, I knew I would never have any poke problems while I was on my own, at least not for a long, long while. By that point, I should have found a way to make poke for myself. Not only that, but they were the ones who taught me what to do had I ever found myself in a store, so I had a flashback to that as well. After finalizing my purchase, I decided to make my way back to the entrance, although, on the way there, something caught my eye.

It was in a small section of the store close to the entrance, where many different objects related to one's apparel were being sold. I walked into the area and began to observe the object that I spotted. It was a beautiful teal scarf, it didn't look too long, nor was it short. It was a perfect size for most pokemon. However, its beauty is not what made me eye this scarf.

It was a very similar scarf to the one that my parents would wear when I saw them come back from wherever they worked. I slowly lifted my paw up to it and lightly caressed it. It had a very soft texture, but at the same time, it was firm, like firm enough to withstand a scyther's claws.

I very quickly took the scarf off of its holder and brought it to the cashier. After purchasing the scarf, I walked out of the store, and immediately wrapped it around neck. The scarf was decent fit, even if it ran down my body a bit further than I expected. Regardless, I felt its comfort. I put a paw to feel the texture of the scarf once more, and I felt its warmth and protection. It may have been warm outside, but I didn't think I would ever become tired of the heat that came off of this scarf.

 _It almost feels like… I have my parents with me again._

I slightly smiled at the thought, and this time, it was genuine. The first time in what I assumed was years that I was actually happy enough to smile genuinely. With that sentiment in mind, I wandered about in the streets, hopefully to find some answers.

* * *

Hello Readers!

This is me from the future, as I just edited a lot of this chapter because it was more than necessary.

Honestly, I just think I'm terrible at proofreading, every time I read through the thing again, I find another grammar error, another missed capitalization, a misplaced comma, a spelling error, the list goes on. Regardless, this is the second chapter I've made somewhat significant changes to in post, so hopefully you enjoy the better version! (For those of you who may not see the original, it's pretty bad. I was proud of it at first, but these changes were necessary.)

Anyways, I would say see you next chapter, but this is me in post, not me presently, sooo…

See you in thirteen chapters!


	2. A kindred spirit

**Kuro**

As I was walking down the stone road that I was beginning to become accustomed to, a large gust of wind blew my ears back, as well as send my scarf flowing behind me. I then looked up to see that there was a very large accumulation of clouds gathered together in the sky, it almost looked like a group of pokemon huddling together for warmth. However, the thought was instantly pushed out of my head when I heard a roar of thunder, and felt something cold and wet drop directly on the tip of my nose. After deducing that staying outside was a bad idea, I quickly dashed around the streets, looking for a place I may be able to stay in or explore as the storm that was radiating overhead would pass.

I found a rather large building, however, as I approached it, I realized that this building was more than large, it looked as if it was touching the sky. Because it was taller than the gigantic grocery store I looked through earlier, I deduced that this was not a house and decided to take refuge inside of it until the storm decided it wanted to find someplace else to bother.

As soon as I took one step inside of the enormous building, I realized that the place was rather populated, which I really should have expected, as a place with this kind of decor would seem popular. The entire floor had a gorgeous purple carpet draped over it. There were many pillars connecting to the somewhat low ceilings, presumably higher floors. The pillars were quite wide, and also sported the same deep purple that the carpets had, although these pillars also had pure white stripes twisting around each pillar. The white color almost looked like snow. There were also large, carpeted staircases that led to upper floors. The stairs had a bright red carpeting to them, as oppose to the purple and white color that the rest of the room seemed to contain.

 _Guess they decided that variety would be a good thing to attract… Customers? I don't even know what this building is yet, and here I am, standing in one place observing the whole thing like I have a goal._

After pondering in thought, I decided that I should explore the building a bit, maybe find something that told me what exactly this building was. Much to my dismay, after wandering around the groups of random pokemon awkwardly, I did not find a thing pertaining to what exactly this building is. I then looked outside a window to see that the storm had passed, however, it was also night. I decided that I should leave and not intently search the building anymore. Besides…. I'm starting to get weird looks.

As soon as I stepped outside, I felt completely energized. If there was one thing I didn't hate about my form as an Umbreon, it was the absolute euphoria I felt whenever I was outside at night. My rings began to glow brightly, and I did nothing to resist it. I honestly felt like I could do anything, kind of makes me wonder why I didn't decide to become nocturnal.

Because of my new found energy, I decided to take in my surroundings. After taking another look at the place, this town really was a sight to behold. There were small bushes lining most of the stone trails that most pokemon walked on. Each building had a different color to it, a detail that I didn't catch the first few times I glanced around the town. Throughout the entire place there were large fields, neatly covered in dirt, along with a thick white line drawn to make boundaries around the field. I guessed that they were used for mach-battling, at least, they looked like a place in which you would have a one on one battle. The more I looked around and explored the town, the more it fascinated me. This town was nothing like the small field outside the cave that I used to live in, it had actual structures everywhere for pokemon to take refuge in, or for other purposes such as stores. I took one last look at the night trail, and noticed how the small lights scattered along the trail made it glow brilliantly. I felt myself smile at the sight, and it made me want to explore more of the town.

Nevertheless, I needed to find a place to sleep, so I began to wander around until I found a small place to take refuge in, no matter what it was. An alleyway, under a bench, under a bench in an alleyway, I just needed to find someplace I could sleep. So, with that thought in mind, I began to wander the streets once more, trying not to distract myself with the beauty of the town as I searched.

* * *

 **Naru**

I was walking down the streets at night, something I don't usually do. I was extremely energized from my training earlier today, so sleep was not exactly something I was interested in at the moment, I just wanted to find something to do, anything to do.

 _It's not like I can go back home or anything…._

I quickly erased any bad thoughts clouding my head and decided to hang on to something that kept me from being upset today.

 _That Umbreon… there was something about him…_

I haven't been able to get that Umbreon… Kuro… out of my head since I accidently rammed my head into his earlier that day. He seemed… Genuinely nice… Like he didn't want to hurt me even know I hurt him.

 _I wish I could say the same for everyone else around here…._

* * *

As a young Glaceon, I had a pretty nice life. I had two loving parents, despite them both being of the same sex, the Electivire and Magmortar that adopted me were extremely kind people, and made friends with anyone they associated with, even in this large city. I also had a younger brother, at least by name, we were both adopted, so both myself and the Zorua are technically not related by blood, but all of us are still a very happy family. We lived in a somewhat small house, but none of us minded. The brown wooden interior along with the mostly green decorative carpets and curtains that were scattered all along the rectangular shaped rooms made a perfect place for the four of us to be happy while we lived there.

Everything would be so perfect….

If it wasn't for the other kids.

Because my parents weren't straight, I was seen as a target for various types of bullying whenever I was with them. The worst part was; I couldn't get away, they put on an act while they were around my parents, so they never knew what they really did to me whenever we were alone. It was traumatizing for me, but nowhere near as traumatizing as what would happen the following day.

I was finished with my usual routine, coming home after buying food for my family to cook to spend some time with my two Fathers and Brother.

Little did I know that I was walking into a nightmare. I opened the door like I usually do, ready to be greeted by my parents, however, when I heard nothing, I decided to go to the kitchen to see what they were up to.

I wish I never set foot anywhere near that door.

As soon as I walked in, I dropped all of my bags, and my heart sank. Tears were already pouring out of my eyes before my mind could even comprehend what I was looking at. On my kitchen counter… lie both of my Fathers… both sliced through the stomach, the wound obviously driven straight through both of their hearts. That didn't compare to when I looked over at the small table we had in the kitchen though, where I saw the third sight that day that would leave me scarred for life. I saw my brother…. Decapitated. There were also many scratches and wounds all over his body, and he was covered in a strange liquid that I didn't recognize, but I knew better than to touch it.

After my mind finally caught up to my eyes, I let out an ear-piercing scream, and I blacked out.

Once the events of that day were over, I thought I would at least be rid of the other kids' bullying, but it only got worse. Now, I was not only known as Naru, the girl with gay parents, but also Naru, the one that was alone and left behind, making me an even easier target. I then did what any other kid would do in that situation. I ran. I ran as far and as fast as I could. I didn't know where I was going, nor did I care, I just wanted to leave everything.

It took about eight years of drowning in my own sorrow… When I finally gained enough courage to leave my house without being a nervous wreck, but I still avoided anyone in the entire town. I had food and poke to last me, I just didn't want to see anyone. Living in a completely secluded space was all I did, until I turned sixteen. That is when I finally gave myself a reality check and stopped avoiding others.

I only ended up getting continuously bullied again, with the now teenagers finding more fuel since I didn't attempt to interact with anyone for who knows how long. This time, I didn't run, I decided it was time for me to get stronger, both mentally and physically, so I decided to leave the town for the day in order to find a suitable place to do so. Ignoring all of the snarky comments that were thrown my way, and really getting pumped up about finally going on a quest for self-improvement, I bolted out of the town as fast as I could.

Only for me to ram my head into an unsuspecting Umbreon.

* * *

While resting on a small bench, I continued pushing away all of the memories that I so foolishly resurfaced. However, as I was focusing on that, something caught my eye, there was a small flicker of light in the distance, not too far away from me. I started to turn my head to the side, but I quickly found what felt like a claw cover my mouth.

I struggled to break free, I even tried to scream, but my attacker wouldn't allow it, as they brought me into a small alleyway. I tried to observe my attacker as best as I could, but all I could make out was a small stature of a body, and a badge seemingly pinned into the pokemon's skin, almost looking like it was a part of the skin itself. It had a dark spiral, surrounding what looked like a small hand. The symbol was not one that I was familiar with, but that wasn't what I was most concerned with. That would be whatever this pokemon was going to do to me.

I felt tears rush to my eyes as their grip began to tighten, I only became more afraid, thinking the worst. Much to my fears, I felt something similar to a blade get held up to my neck, only for me to finally realize my attacker as a Gallade. I was then mentally preparing for my death, for the Gallade to begin to put a decent amount of pressure on his blade, and cross it across my neck, slitting my throat and killing me. I already felt the cold sensation of impending death washing over me.

Instead, something unexpected happened.

I felt the pressure lift from my neck and began to stumble towards a wall. I turned my head, only to see that the Gallade had been thrown against the wall adjacent to me. I held a very confused gaze, looking all around me for the source of what sent the Gallade flying.

It was then that I saw an Umbreon, with its rings glowing in absolute beauty standing near the Gallade, seemingly ready to pounce at any moment.

 _Kuro…. It's you..._

The Gallade quickly jumped up and locked eyes with the Umbreon, both showing a fierce glare. Much to my surprise, the Gallade spoke.

"What do you think you're doing getting in the way of my kill? What right do you have to take it for yourself, Umbreon?" I then saw Kuro's face turn into a very confused expression before responding.

"I'm not here to kill this Glaceon, why would I? And better yet, why exactly do you want to kill her?" He asked, not breaking his batting stance.

"None of your damn business." The Gallade quickly and coldly responded, before also getting into a batting stance. It was a strange place to suggest a battle, as one wall of the alley was about fifteen feet away from the other, not giving either pokemon very much room to move around. However, as I was distracting myself with the thick gray walls that surrounded us, I didn't realize that the two had already started to attack one another.

Kuro was the first to move, using a quick attack off of the wall to rapidly close the distance between him and the Gallade, and then he began to bear his teeth, seemingly ready to chomp the Gallade's head off. The Gallade swiftly dodged out of the way, not noticing the small amount of dark energy that Kuro was building up in his maw. Kuro then looked in the direction of the Gallade and fired a fierce dark pulse directly at him, hitting him square in the chest. The Gallade then flew against the wall, reeling from the attack, but then recovered quickly and rushed Kuro with his blades pointed forward. I saw Kuro's expression change, as if he was hit by a small wave of uneasiness. The Gallade then managed to connect his blade into the side of Kuro, to which he let out a small grunt of pain, but nothing more, as he unsheathed his claws and plummeted one into the Gallade's right eye. Unlike Kuro, the Gallade shrieked in pain as he stepped back, prompting Kuro to take advantage of the situation and pin down the Gallade. He then held his claw up to its neck, seemingly ready to slice it at any moment. Kuro cast the Gallade a hateful glare, and then began to speak.

"Tell me, do you want to die?" Kuro said with a malice I wasn't expecting in the slightest. "Do you want to know what you were about to do to an innocent Glaceon? Do you want to feel the pain meant for her?" Kuro only sharpened his glare as he brought his claws closer to the Gallade's neck. The Gallade shot him a frightful look and quickly responded to Kuro's assertion.

"N-No! Please! D-Don't kill me! I promise I won't try to kill this Glaceon again!" He pleaded.

"Sorry but I won't settle for that." Kuro responded coldly. "Promise me you will never attempt to kill another pokemon again, or else I'm afraid I'll need to keep your promise for you."

"O-Ok! I promise that I will never attempt to kill another pokemon! If I do, then you can tear me apart!"

Seemingly satisfied with the response he got out of the Gallade, he stopped pinning him after taking his claws away from his neck, however, his hostile glare stayed embedded deep within his red irises. The Gallade quickly stood up, all while holding his new eye wound, and sprinted away as fast as he could. He certainly wasn't going to try anything else like that again. I then turned my eyes to Kuro, he seemed to be checking the wound he sustained from the Gallade, making sure it wouldn't pose to be a problem. After I had that thought, I immediately felt a wave of guilt wash over me.

 _I'm the reason he got hurt... I'm the reason he had to fight…_

It was then that I noticed that Kuro was looking me in the eyes. My savior was looking me in the eyes.

For some reason, I felt my face begin to heat up.

Dismissing the thought, I heard Kuro speak.

"Are you okay Naru? That Gallade seemed to attack you out of nowhere." He concerningly asked.

At the sound of him calling me by my name, I felt the heat rush up to my face once more, but I immediately dismissed it, thinking up a response.

"N-No, i'm okay! I'm more worried about you. That wound looks painful…" Kuro then looked at his wound again and placed a paw on it, he then slowly slid it down the wound.

"It's not a big deal, I've had worse in the past. It'll heal given enough time." He responded with the same expression. I once again, felt a huge wave of guilt wash over me.

"I'm really sorry," I cast my head down. "You only got hurt because I was here, and you stepped in to save me, which I really appreciate, but it got you injured." Upon saying it out loud, my guilt began to worsen. "I'm really, really sorry."

* * *

 **Kuro**

I stood in front of a slightly whimpering Glaceon, as she had her head cast towards the ground. While I could tell she was appreciative that I saved her from her assailant, she still seemed upset. I tilted my head slightly, wondering what exactly was still bothering her, that is, until her words registered in my mind.

 _You only got hurt because I was here…_

Those words resonated with me, filling me with a feeling I wasn't very familiar with. At least, a feeling I haven't really felt in the past. I knew what it was, but I never really had an opportunity have this feeling bear itself before, as I live too far away from anyone other than my parents in order for such to happen.

I felt very sympathetic towards this Glaceon in front of me.

I didn't know her past, but if this is the way she acted around me both when she ran into me by mistake and how she's acting right now, then I know she has a reason. I didn't want to pry for said reason, as I also have things I prefer not to talk about, especially with someone I've known for less than a day. However, with this new realization, I decided on what I had to do in this situation. Naru clearly seemed upset, and I had to find a way to comfort her.

 _It's around these moments that I really wish I had social experience…_

After a small mental brooding, I finally started to walk towards Naru.

I then softly set one of my forepaws on her head.

It was definitely a bit awkward, especially considering that, despite looking around the same age as me, she was still a few inches taller. However, knocking away this thought, I decided to continue what I was doing.

"You really shouldn't be getting so upset over this," I started, trying to keep my tone as soft as possible. "If I was really that angry or upset over this injury, then I would have lashed out at you or ran away by now you know. This wound doesn't bother me, most of the pain is already gone."

Naru slowly cast her eyes upward from the ground, and locked them with mine. I gave her a small smile, and continued once more.

"Besides… If I didn't want to help you, then I most likely wouldn't have followed that Gallade when I realized he may have been stalking you. I would have just paid it no mind and kept on searching the streets, but I didn't. I wanted to help you. This was my choice, so please don't feel guilty about anything."

After I had stopped talking, I tried to gauge Naru's reaction. She was looking at me intently, holding a gaze that I couldn't quite place. It was a mix of guilt and worry, but it also had a glint of something more.

In her eyes… I saw a glint of hope.

After what felt like about five minutes passed, she finally let her mouth curve into a smile, and her body seemed less tense.

"T-Thank you, Kuro." She stated simply, and gave me the same bright smile she gave me after we exchanged names. I also began to feel the same sensation that I felt when she did that the first time, and I felt my body shudder. I then averted my gaze before the feeling could show on my face.

"L-Like I said, it's really not a problem." I kept my gaze averted, making the atmosphere a small bit more awkward, but Naru didn't seem to be affected by it.

"Anyway, what exactly are you doing here? I knew that you were going into Myriad from earlier today, but I assumed you were visiting family or something, what are you doing outside on the brink of midnight?" Naru curiously asked.

 _Myriad… That must be the name of this town._ Kuro thought.

He also felt a very slight sink in his heart when Naru had mentioned his family, but he knew she didn't mean to spark any unwanted memories, so he hid his change in emotion.

"No, I'm here for… a completely different reason. But what are you doing out here at the brink of midnight? Do you live in this town?" I asked

"I do actually, but my home is a place I don't exactly like to linger around outside of, and since I wanted to wander around outside, I came to a different part of town, pretty much just to wander." She responded casually.

 _That… doesn't really sound safe. I have no idea if she can actually defend herself or not, due to the fact that the Gallade that attacked her obviously caught her off-guard, so I don't know if wandering around a town at night is the best idea…_

I let out a slight sigh, dismissing my thoughts, and also not bothering to ask the ever so begging question that popped up into my head. I didn't want to make Naru's night any worse.

"What reason did you come to this town for?" Naru asked me, trying to use a somewhat cheery tone.

I then flinched a small bit, trying my best to make sure that it wasn't visible outside of my mind.

 _I can't just tell her that i'm looking to find an organization that is responsible for killing my parents, can I? Not to mention, I don't even know if those three belong to an organization, I just assumed as such. They very well could have just been cold-blooded killers that wanted to get their fill._

Through all of my thoughts, I didn't realize that I spaced out after Naru asked her question, prompting her to worry.

"If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to, I was just curious, I didn't mean to strike a nerve." She told me.

I then released a relieved sigh and looked back at Naru after spacing out.

"I'm sorry, it's just… not exactly something I can articulate yet." I lied. I know exactly what I want to do, I just have no idea how I would go about doing it, as even if I tried to confront one of the three who attacked me that day, I would most likely just freeze up anyway. I needed to somehow strengthen myself mentally, enough to face my parents' killers, and the ones that abused me.

 _That raises the question… how exactly do I go about doing this…?_

Because I found myself, once more, lost in my own thoughts, I almost missed Naru asking me a question.

"So, do you have a place to stay? If you don't live here, you probably shouldn't just find a bench to sleep under." She told me, almost as if she read my thoughts earlier.

"No I don't, I was actually just aimlessly walking around trying to finding a secluded place to sleep before I found you." I responded. Now that I thought about sleep, I did actually feel pretty tired, as I have been walking since morning, and while I didn't feel any fatigue build up in me back then, the short battle I had with the Gallade and the wound on my side were beginning to change that.

"Then do you want to come back with me? I have room at my home, and it should be okay for me to go back there now."

After Naru asked me this, I found myself dumbfounded for the third time today. Was this girl really inviting someone she barely knows to sleep in her home? I very well could be a serial killer waiting for my opportunity to strike when she lets her guard down, or assault her when I get the chance.

"Are you sure you're content with inviting a pokemon who you've known for less than twenty-four hours into your home?" I asked her. To this, she chuckled and tried to justify her reasoning.

"I mean, you did save my life, so I think I can trust you a little bit." She said. "Besides, I need to repay you since you not only saved me, but cheered me up afterwards. I think giving you a place to sleep would be a good start, don't you?"

I processed what she was saying and understood her logic as to why she'd be okay with me sleeping in her home, however, wasn't she still being a little bit too trusting?

Or am I just that untrusting?

I ignored my inner conflict and looked back at Naru.

"I'll gladly accept your invitation then, it'll be nice to have a place to sleep that isn't the ground under a bench." I responded.

Naru then smiled gleefully.

I got a familiar feeling in my body.

"Great! I'll show you where it is! Follow me!" She responded with an overly cheery tone, once again, bringing up the shuddering feeling in my body.

With my current problem solved for the time being, I closely followed behind Naru as she walked down the street.

* * *

 **Naru**

I arrived at the short stone doorstep to my home with Kuro in tow.

Around my home was a rather plain-looking area, it was surrounded by short, luscious green bushes. We had virtually no backyard to speak of, the back of the home only sporting a few small trees that were barely taller than the average Alakazam. There was a nice, somewhat smooth trail made from stone leading up to the door, surrounded by steadily growing grass. While it was small, it was a great place to be.

I looked behind me to try and see Kuro's reaction to the home.

He stood there, stopped behind me, bringing his red eyes from the small yard, up to the wood that made of the construction of the home. He looked as if he was amazed, like he was expecting something less, like he was expecting a cave of sorts. In order to break him out of his trance, I decided to speak to him.

"So, this is it. Kind if small huh?" I asked him. "This place may be small, but it's extremely comforting, and has more room than you think." I continued.

Kuro snapped to attention and brought his eyes to mine. Seemingly off guard by my talking.

"This place is small? I think it's beautiful, far more so than my place of residence." He said.

His response admittedly shocked me, as this home was easily the smallest in the town, and by quite a margin as well.

 _Just what exactly was his living situation before he came here?_

After pondering in thought a bit, I looked up to see the moon shining brightly. The shine beautifully reflected off of Kuro's golden rings, giving them a very enigmatic glow. I soon found myself caught in a small trance as well, but quickly shook myself out of it as I realized that the moon was out, signaling time for us to sleep.

"Why don't we go inside, I have a room and a small bed that you can use to sleep." I told Kuro.

He nodded and then followed me through the wooden door. He immediately began inspecting the home, as if he was once again amazed by its appearance.

 _Before he gets stuck into another amazed gaze, I should do something._

I smiled at the thought of Kuro's curious glint shooting all over a place that he wasn't familiar with. In fact, I was so amused that I had to stifle a chuckle so Kuro wouldn't notice.

"Why don't I show you where you can sleep so we can get some rest." I then yawned. "Arceus knows that we both need it."

"Sounds good, I'm also feeling quite exhausted from the events from today." Kuro told me, also yawning.

I walked down the low hallway, also made out of wood, while I felt the warm green carpet under my paws. I even glanced to one of the pictures that my brother used to admire on the wall. He had this strange obsession with a known organization whose members were known as 'Ravens.' It never really intrigued me, but apparently they are a part of a following to eliminate some kind of murderous group torturing innocent pokemon. I hoped that I would never… Have to… Encounter one…

My thoughts began to wander.

A terrifying thought popped into my head.

 _Didn't that Gallade want to kill me for seemingly no reason? That wouldn't mean…._

I instantly stopped my train of thought and continued to lead Kuro to his room. Once we got into the small room that had no decore of note other than the green wallpaper, (My parents really did love that color…) nor did it have anything inside of it other than a small straw bed. I then looked back at Kuro behind me.

"Well, here's your room. Sorry if it's a bit small, but the bed is comfortable. This actually used to be my brother's room." I told him.

"I don't mind the small size, it's perfect. Kind of reminds me about my old room." Kuro stated while I begged he didn't ask her about her brother.

Luckily, Kuro placed his paws on the bed laid out in front of him, and I could see the drowsiness overcome him.

"Thank you for your hospitality, I appreciate it." Kuro told me, before setting his head down, curled up into a small ball of black fur.

Kuro then closed his eyes, almost instantly falling into a deep sleep. I looked down at him, watching his chest slowly raise and lower. It was admittedly… A little bit adorable.

After feeling heat rush to my cheeks, I dismissed my thoughts and headed to her own room. I walked down to the other side of the same hallway used to get to my late brother's room and at the end of the hall and entered my own room. It was a little bit bigger than my brother's, but sported a light blue color corresponding to the less dark portions of my fur, along with small black stripes on the bottom of the wall, as well as at the top, only a few inches away from the ceiling. Much like my brother's, there wasn't really anything in the form of decoration, just an empty room other than a bed. However, I also had a small bag near the corner of the room, as well as a scarf. The bag was black, as it was originally my brother's, so it corresponded to his fur. The scarf was red, also previously owned by my brother, to go with the red spots of his fur, it matched quite nicely.

Apparently, the bag and scarf were the supposed uniform of his idols, the Ravens. I could see why something like this would be used as uniform, as it created a nice contrast.

Thinking about this brought up unwanted memories, so I pushed them down far inside of my brain and curled up in her bed, similarly to the way Kuro did. I then closed my eyes, and let my thoughts go to the pokemon I met today.

Specifically, they shot straight to Kuro.

 _I think he is the first pokemon… I might be able to call my friend…_

With that positive sentiment in mind, I smiled to myself and fell into a blissful slumber.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling a bit restless from my short-lived slumber. I lifted my body and looked around the room I was sleeping in. I really did appreciate everything that Naru was doing for me, giving me a place to stay was definitely a step up from sleeping under a bench.

 _I'll have to thank her tomorrow…_ I thought groggily.

While I was looking around the room, my eyes landed in a small picture that had its back turned in the corner of the room. I didn't notice it when I had first walked in, so I decide to walk over and check it out.

I didn't think too fondly about snooping around someone else's' home, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I turned the picture around.

The picture looked like a group of about forty pokemon, all varied in species. Above the frame of the picture read the word, 'Ravens.' I didn't concern myself with the word immediately, instead, I decided to look at and observe all of the pokemon in the picture. All of them wore a scarf similar to the one I had picked up at the large store I visited earlier that day, which I found a bit odd, but didn't read too deep into it.

But then, something else quickly caught my attention.

Five pokemon stuck out to me in the crowd, I soon set down the picture, turned it around and pushed it up against the wall, and quickly backed away from it back towards the bed.

I focused on keeping my breathing steady as I thought about who I saw in the picture.

Three pokemon that I recognized all too well were present in the picture.

An Absol.

A Flygon.

An Umbreon.

While this definitely creeped me out, and made unwanted memories rise, the two other pokemon in the picture that I recognized almost made me faint.

A Vaporeon.

A Leafeon.

My parents.

* * *

Hello Readers!

This is me from the future, editing this chapter to fix a lot errors that I made that weren't exactly non-noticeable. (I mean, I switched to third person near the end of this thing originally by complete accident… How do you even make that kind of mistake?)

Anywho, this chapter has been edited a bit and has had multiple mistakes fixed, so positive vibes!

I would say see you next chapter, but that's not the one I'm currently working on so….

See you chapter fourteen I suppose!


	3. An Opportunity

_Why are they in this picture? What are they doing with those three?_

I tried very hard to keep my thoughts in order as I was processing what I had just seen on the picture that I investigated. On one side, it was information, information that could possibly lead to answers in the future, but it also confused me to no end.

I was trying to take what I knew from the picture and see if I could simplify the information that I had just received. At first, I instantly thought that this had to be the organization that the three who attacked me belonged to, but I instantly shot that thought out of my head when I realized that my parents were also most likely a part of said organization.

 _There is no way my parents were mindless killers… I won't believe it no matter what._

I tried to calm myself by finding probable reasoning that my parents were not in a group of cold-blooded killers, and sadly, in order to find said reasoning, I had to look back on the day where my life took a drastic turn. I took a large inhale, and then promptly exhaled.

I then closed my eyes and tried to remember with more detail.

I pictured the scene in my mind, all starting with the point in which I walked out of my home behind my mother. I remember looking at the three unknown pokemon, being confused and somewhat startled by their presence. I observed them closely in my mind, seeing if I could notice anything that stands out, something that sets them apart from others of their species besides their faces.

It was then that I noticed something on the Umbreon's chest, the Flygon's head, and the Absol's paw.

I saw a strange symbol, something that looked like it had been a part of their bodies themselves. It was a small dark circle, seemingly spiraling around a small hand from a bipedal pokemon. It wasn't exactly a badge, as it did actually seem to be embedded in the skin of the pokemon, but it looked like it had a similar purpose.

While I was replaying the horrible day in my head, there was something that I found a bit confusing. Everyone in that memory was in that picture I found, but it seemed like my Mother didn't know who the pokemon were, while my Father seemed familiar with them. My Mother started to ask who they were before my Father got attacked, while he was chatting with them in an almost casual manner. It seemed like he knew who they were, but my Mother had no idea.

After mentally noting that, I looked into the bag I had purchased earlier that day and took out a notepad and pen that I also purchased at the time of the bag. I wrote down my thoughts, if anything, to make sure I could keep them organized while I tried to piece everything together. After I finished writing, I went back to the memory, but to no avail. All that I was able to do after I noticed the badge-like symbol was relive the worst experience of my life. I also realized that I had a small amount of tears falling down my face from recalling the day, so I quickly wiped them away.

However, I'm glad I didn't suppress my thoughts, because I came to a realization shortly after I recalled the memory.

 _Why would the three attack and further kill my parents if they were allies? Also, if they worked together, why did only my Father know them while my Mother seemed to be ignorant to their existence?_

After my train of thought settled, I felt myself calm down. With all of the information I put together, it is very unlikely that my parents were cold-blooded killers, and more likely that this picture resembles something else. Or, at least, I was telling myself this to make sure I didn't have a mental breakdown. My thoughts then went to another detail of the picture, being the word plastered above the frame.

' _Ravens,' what does it mean? Is this maybe an organization that calls its members Ravens? Or does it stand for something? Is this even an organization? Is this just a group of long time friends meeting together again? Is there a purpose behind this picture, or was it just a nice picture of a group of pokemon? Why-_

I cut off my mental questions before I gave myself a headache. I had too many questions, and not an answer to one of them. I had so many things that confused me, and nothing to remedy that confusion. I gripped my head in my forepaws and then waltzed back over to the bed that was provided to me. I felt the individual straws of the bed push against my fur, creating a soft, pleasurable place for me to sleep. After curling up, I closed my eyes and let my thoughts wander once again, going back to my mental confusion.

 _Maybe Naru has some answers… Maybe she can tell me what exactly this picture means, after all, it is in her house. Maybe she can give me some of the information I am so desparate for._

 _Maybe she can help me._

With those hopeful thoughts rushing through my head, I once again fell into a peaceful slumber.

* * *

 **?**

I looked around the large, beautifully constructed building that I find myself spending most of my time in. The red carpeting on the stairs and the purple theme that clouds every other room in this place just gives it a very alluring design. This was definitely the only place I was able to think whatever I wanted without raising suspicion. I wondered what my life would be like if I wasn't at the mercy of a sadist who tortures others as a hobby. I would assume that it would be a hell of a lot more pleasant, but I suppose I couldn't guarantee something that doesn't exist.

I let out an irritated sigh, not wanting to have to keep up the act I've been putting on for so long.

When I was done thinking about what my life could have been, I decided to do what I always do in this room; think about random things. My mind wandered to around aimlessly, not knowing what to think or do at the moment. I always spent my time like this when I didn't have a task to complete. After some time passed, I remembered something that happened earlier today. I walked passed a rather peculiar Umbreon.

The Umbreon looked familiar… Like I've seen them once a very long time ago. They also seemed like they were scared of me, as in, petrified. The mon literally froze as I walked by, which caused me a slight bit of confusion.

 _I can't remember for the life of me if I've seen that Umbreon somewhere before… but I need to keep my eye out._

 _That Umbreon… had a very distinct atmosphere around them._

 _One that was on a mission, and one who won't let anyone stand in the way of them accomplishing their goals._

 _I just hope that goal doesn't involve the ones I'm currently stuck under, otherwise I'll be forced to do something about it._

I then turned around to the bedchamber that I initially came from, and walked back into it, suppressing my urge to leave and let out energy during the night.

I walked through the somewhat large bedroom, sporting another deep purple color, and sprawled myself out on the soft cushions that made up my bed.

I then fell into a blank sleep.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I woke up groggily from my deep slumber and stretched out all four of my legs while slowly getting up off of the straw bed I had been sleeping on. I was admittedly expecting some of the straw to be caught in my fur, but I found none, my fur was still in the same exact condition as it was last night. The reason it surprised me is because, with my old bed that had the same design, The straws would constantly come off of it and lodge themselves deep within my fur, which was a bit of an annoyance, so I wasn't complaining here.

 _Must have been constructed better than mine…_ I thought.

After I finally, fully woke my mind up, I cast my gaze down to the wound I had sustained the previous night. It seemed to already be healing, as it wasn't really a deep wound to begin with, so the healing process wouldn't take very long. I still decided it would be a good idea to hide it if I went out in public though, even if it was faint, the wound did still scale across the entirety of the side of my body, which I would presume would make others uncomfortable.

I took my scarf and draped it over the wound that ran down the side of my body in order to make sure it wasn't immediately visible to anyone who sees me. Just as I finished that, a familiar Glaceon walked into the room to greet me.

"Morning Kuro!" She exclaimed. "Were you able to sleep well?"

"I slept great, thank you for the place to stay once again." I responded to her with an appreciative tone. I felt my mind urging me to ask questions regarding the picture that I had found the previous night, but I held myself back from barraging Naru with questions just as we both woke up. Instead, I suggested something else.

"Is there a place around here to get some food? I've haven't eaten much the past few days." I asked her. As soon as I did, I saw her face light up with glee.

"Of course! There are a lot of places here to eat, you kind of have to because if the size of this place, you know?" She responded. "Want me to take you to one close to here? It's a nice place, but a bit expensive."

"Sure, I'd love that, and money really isn't a problem, I should be able to handle any price." I told her.

"Great! Then let's go before it gets crowded!" Naru said excitedly.

I nodded and followed her out the door.

While we were walking down the same, smooth road that I used to get here, I took in the sight of all of the tall buildings around me, still not used to being around any structures, let alone these magnificent ones. I almost bumped into Naru as she stopped in front of me, motioning to the restaurant in front of us.

"Here it is! Let's go get some food, shall we?" She towards the Orange building with nothing indicating it had a name of any kind. I quickly followed suit.

The restaurant was a grand and beautiful building, while not being very large, it had a deep red carpeting, with golden lines intertwining all around as if swimming in the red. The walls had a pure, smooth wooden composure, that was also very pleasing to the eye. We sat down across from one another at one of the tables, also made out of the same wooden construction that made up the walls, topped off with a nice cloth that sported a dark brown color, along with white circles spread out around the color of the cloth. I ordered a small platter of different berries, as I really didn't like to eat meat. Eating the meat of other pokemon was considered normal, but I could never bring myself to enjoy it, so I kept to eating berries from the day I was born to present times. Naru ordered the same thing that I did, apparently because she had never tried it, despite being here hundreds of times. We spent a small amount of time eating in silence, just enjoying the delicious food. Every time I bit into a berry, a fresh stream of juice made its way into my mouth, creating a flavour that I couldn't express with words, something very sweet but never becoming too much for your tastebuds to handle. I didn't dwell on the thought, I just continued eating the delicious food. After a good amount of time had passed and both of us were almost done, I decided it was time for me to for me to ask a question.

"Hey Naru, do you mind if I ask you a question?" I asked her.

She picked up her head from her plate and locked eyes with me.

"Sure, what did you want to ask?" She said curiously.

I inhaled and exhaled slightly, ready to suppress emotions I knew would be risen up as I ask my question.

"I woke up in the middle of the night yesterday, and I came across a picture in the corner of the room that had a group of a huge group of pokemon with the word 'Ravens' above the frame, do you know what that picture is exactly?" I finished asking her, not mentioning the five pokemon that I recognized in the picture.

"Oh, that was probably something left by my brother, it's an organization that he adored, they call their members 'Ravens' and apparently they're a group of pokemon who fight against some kind of other group that goes around and needlessly kills innocent pokemon. I don't know much about them, and their name isn't public like what they call their members, but I know that they recruit people somewhere in this town. You have to go through some battle preliminary process, and then they pick fifteen people as members of the applicants that applied. They seem like they have a lot of very strong pokemon involved, and they are greatly respected by almost all of Myriad." Naru explained.

After listening intently, my thoughts went back to all of the questions I had last night. Some of them had actually been answered, it looks like I was on the right track asking Naru about that picture, but that made me think of something else.

After learning that there were two opposing organizations, one killing innocents, and one trying to stop said killing of innocents. I had almost no doubt in my mind that by the way that the Gallade that attacked Naru was acting, he was most likely a member of the former, it would make a lot of sense. I also had quite a hunch that the three who attacked my family could also be a part of that group, but I didn't know for sure.

I needed some kind of connection…

Then it hit me.

"Naru, when that Gallade attacked you, did you see anything strange on its body? Like, something that resembled a badge, but was a part of their body?" I quickly asked.

Naru seemed surprised by my sudden and fast response, but she kept her eyes on mine and gave me the answer I was hoping for,

"Yeah… He had some weird black circle on his body, it looked like a spiral with the hand of a bipedal in the center." She told me.

My spirit lit up within my body, know finally knowing the answer to a question I've had since the day my life went to hell, I finally knew an answer to one of the questions that have been plaguing me for years, and that filled me with a great feeling of excitement.

 _It's all thanks to Naru… She gave me an important answer that I desperately needed._

"Why did you want to know? Do you know something about that symbol?" Naru asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Not really, I just thought that the members of some evil organization like that had to have some form of identification, it just makes sense." I lied.

I really didn't want to lie to Naru, especially now that she helped me with a huge question that I've had for years on end, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell her what happened to me. I knew she had been through harsh events in the past as well, hence why I haven't brought up her family at all, I can infer that something happened to them and I know that she wouldn't want to talk about it. To my understanding, knowing what happened to me may remind her of whatever she went through, and I didn't need to cause her any more pain.

We finally finished our food, payed at the tall front desk near the entrance, and were bid farewell by the owner. As we were walking down the street, my eyes came across the very large building that I found myself in the other day, the one that I used to take refuge from the storm.

"Hey, Naru, do you know what this building's purpose is?" I asked her. She looked up at the enormous building and shook her head.

"No, sorry, I've never been in here before. I guess it never really intrigued me." She answered in an apologetic tone.

"No need to apologize, it's not a problem." I assured her. "Why don't we go in and check it out for ourselves? It can't hurt to find out." I mentioned. My idea seemed to gain Naru's interest, before she smiled and looked me in the eyes.

"Sure! Let's do it! Sounds like this will be interesting." Naru said in a very energetic tone.

I smiled at her and walked up to the front door before opening it and being introduced to a very familiar landscape. Naru seemed to be checking out and admiring the deep purple carpeting that I admired when I first set foot in here. We only walked around the building for a few moments when we noticed the bright red carpeted staircase that I refrained from exploring yesterday. We both began to climb the staircase, only to come up to a mostly empty room with nothing but a single desk with a Bisharp behind it. The room had a dark blue color on its floor, as well as a plain, gray coloring around the walls that made up the construction of the gigantic room. We walked up to the desk, mostly curious as to what exactly it was. The Bisharp then looked up at us with an observing gaze, but that gaze turned into an amused one when their eyes came upon my scarf.

"It has been quite a while since a duo of eeveelutions walked in here, do you two want to apply?"

I was supremely confused at first, but when I tried to piece together what exactly he had just said in my mind, a distinct possibility presented itself to me. Naru then began talking, and my assumptions started to gain some certainty.

"Apply for what exactly? We've never been here before, so we don't know what this place employs." Naru said.

"So you're telling me you just wandered in here aimlessly?" He playfully taunted.

The thoughts in my head finally clicked, and I spoke up.

"Wait, are you talking about applying for… that organization that gives its members the name of Ravens?" I asked.

The Bisharp just gave a small smile and nodded, prompting Naru and I to look at each other.

"Well I guess we found the answer to our question earlier." I told Naru. She then gave me an amused smile and her expression quickly changed to a slightly more serious one.

"Well, do you want to apply to be a member? You seemed interested in them earlier, and it looks like this is where you can be a part of it." She asked me.

A swarm of thoughts poured through my head, ranging from the consideration of joining, to denying the application and going back to wandering the streets.

 _Well, if I need answers… this would certainly be the place to get them… What better place to go to than the ones in the picture themselves?_ I asked myself.

"I… I don't know. I honestly feel like I want to join, but I'm not exactly familiar with how anything works around here, plus I don't know how cut out I am for going up against a bunch of murderous psychopaths." I stated. If when I ran into the Absol was any indication, then I don't know if it's the best idea for me to be battling other pokemon like that. I must have had an unsure expression on my face, because Naru approached me with a concerning look. She almost looked like she really wanted me to join… Almost as if she knows that this is the only place I can go to get the answers I need.

"Remember, Kuro, if you don't want to join than that's fine…" She started. "But I can tell you really want to, although I don't know why, whether it's because you just want to stop pokemon from doing heinous things, or if it's for some entirely different reason, I have no idea. However, I think you should try it. I have a reason to do it, and I'm also considering the decision, so I'm in the same boat as you, but I think you should go through with it, follow what you think is right." Naru finished.

I honestly didn't know what to think. I had just learned about this place earlier today, and now I was being offered to apply to be a member. What was I supposed to say? I barely knew what anything was outside of the den that I grew up in, so was it really a good Idea to make a decision like this right after I decided to leave my endless cycle? At the same time I thought about this, I remembered the reason I broke that cycle in the first place. I wanted answers. I was willing to do anything to help me reach these answers, and this would definitely be a step in the right direction, and a lot faster than I expected to get one.

I decided to let Naru's words resonate within my mind. I repeated what she told me in my head several times over, trying to let it help me finalize my decision.

Eventually, I made my choice.

"I'll apply." I strongly said. "I have a reason as to why I want to be here, and I need to follow through on that to the best of my ability… So… I'll apply." I stated.

I saw Naru in the corner of my eye give me a bright smile, and I returned it. After all, my choice very well might have been different had she not encouraged me, so I was very happy to have Naru with me.

I was happy to finally have a friend by my side.

"Okay, I'll put you down on the list." The Bisharp said with a smile. "And how about you young Glaceon? Will you apply as well?"

Naru seemed to ponder in thought for a quick moment but then quickly perked up and responded.

"Of course I'll apply! No reason not to try, right?" She said with a smile.

The Bisharp then wrote down Naru's name on the same list mine was on. He turned his head to us with a slightly more serious expression, but still kept his heartful smile.

"Luckily for you two, we are going to select members for the new week of applicants in about two hours, so you don't need to wait long." He said. "Come to this room at that time, and then we will hold the applications for you and the other forty-eight pokemon that you will be contending with." He finished.

Naru and I both gave him a firm nod and then exited the building, heading back to Naru's home because she said she wanted to get something before we applied. After we arrived, I waited outside for Naru to go in and get whatever she needed.

 _I wonder what she needed to get..?_ I pondered.

* * *

 **Naru**

I walked into my home quickly, rushing down the plain hallway into my blue room, when I looked to the corner and stared at a familiar scarf and bag… belonging to my late brother.

I gave the items a sad smile and picked them up into my paws.

I closely inspected the bright red scarf that used to belong to my Brother, feeling the comfortable silk texture that it had. I stroked it with a paw, and was instantly attacked by memories of when my Brother was alive. He really was a cheerful child, while he never really took anything seriously, he always knew how to cheer someone up, whether it by sheer encouragement, or by showing someone his obsessive nature when it can to the Ravens.

 _He always so closely admired them... He always wanted to be like them…._

I pondered in my thoughts for a bit before they went back to when my Brother was alive. I felt a twitch of pain in my heart and felt tears start to build up, threatening to move to my eyes and fall out.

I pushed them down, it took some effort, but after a short while, I was able to regain my original composure.

 _I'm…. I'm going to try and become one of them… Try to become one of the people that you admired… One of the people you wanted to be like… So please… Watch over me and wish me luck…_

I prayed to my Brother, hoping that he was listening from the afterlife.

 _Besides, I'm not alone… I have Kuro… The first person I can really call a friend…._

After regaining my usual self once more, I wrapped the red scarf around my neck and slung the black bag over my back. I then ran back outside, going back to Kuro.

 _Going back to my friend._

* * *

 **Kuro**

Naru now sported a deep red scarf, similar to the one I had on other than the color, her deep red contrasting to my light teal. She was also holding a decently sized black bag, a bit smaller than the one that I was holding, but also didn't impair her movement in any way. If anything, it looked like it hung off of her a lot more naturally than mine hung off of me.

"Sorry for having to come back here, I just wanted to get these two pieces and take them with me to the application." She said somewhat apologetically.

"No need to apologize, a few accessories are nice things to have, they look natural on you." I said with a small smile.

Naru then seemed to avert her gaze, but I didn't really think anything of it and we started to walk back to the building that we initially came from. We walked in silence, both mentally preparing ourselves for whatever we would have to do in order to apply, because neither of us had the faintest idea. Would we be put in a combat situation? Would they test our mental strength? Would they test how resistant we are to pain? Neither of us knew what we were getting ourselves into, but we didn't care, we knew the reasons we needed to apply, and we were going to go through with it.

 _We have to go through with it._

We arrived back at the large building and headed up the deep red stairs back to the room where we signed up to apply. Only this time, the room was packed with many others. The room was bustling with noise, with the presumably forty-eight other pokemon in the room according to the Bisharp that helped us apply. Naru and I awkwardly fidgeted our way around the crowd and tried to push ourselves towards the front with only slight succession. We made it about halfway up the room when we were all silenced by the Bisharp that helped us apply, who was now standing at the head of the room. He smiled at everyone there and then opened his mouth to begin speaking.

"Welcome all aspiring Ravens!" He shouted loudly, prompting a few cheers among the crowd. "It is time for all of you to apply for your admission as a Raven! How will you go about doing this you may ask? Well, it's a very simple process, you just need to prove to us your combat ability! We have already organized a tournament bracket that all of you will be fighting in and judged upon appropriately. Each of the one on one fights that you will be watched closely for fighting style, state of mind, combat ability, and many more variables to show us just what exactly you're capable of. You don't necessarily need to win any of your fights to be chosen as one of our sixteen admissions, you just need to prove that you will be a very effective asset to us in our fight! We not only once had someone who lost in the first round make the cut, but we also had someone who won the whole tournament not get chosen at all, so never lose hope, no matter how far you get! We originally took in fifteen members as oppose to sixteen, but a new policy has increased our number, that new policy will be explained to you if you are one of the ones to be accepted. Now, there are fifty of you standing in front of me, but we will have fifty-two pokemon participating in the tournament, the extra two are current members of our organization. This is another way to test your abilities in combat, going up against a pokemon that already has a lot of battling experience with us is certainly a challenge, so we'd like to measure how you fare in a fight against them. We will have an arena that the battles will be taking place in, you win the battle by either knocking your opponent into one of the walls surrounding the arena, or knocking them unconscious. We will have Audino medics on standby if anyone gets too injured to move properly, so you don't need to worry about holding back! Now that everything has been explained, why don't we promptly begin out battles!" The Bisharp's speech ended, prompting many cheers from the crowd around us.

"Without further ado, here are the tournament matchups!" The Bisharp yelled.

I bright screen seemed to be projected on the wall next to the crowd, showing pictures of pokemon in a large tournament bracket sporting bright white lines on a black background. Everyone was excitedly checking out the board, eager to see where they had been placed, while I could barely see because I was smaller than ninety percent of the pokemon there, even the ones that were in the first form of their evolutionary line.

 _Sometimes I wonder where I got my genes that make me so small…_

Kicking away my thoughts, I finally got a view at the board. The second match of the admissions had a pokemon with a star next to its picture, presumably meaning that pokemon was a present member of the organization, but that wasn't what made me tense up at the picture.

What made me tense up… Was that the pokemon in the picture was one I recognized all too well.

It was a familiar Absol.

I tried not to freeze in the spot and decided to focus on finding my placement while I had the chance, only to find something that tensed me just as much as the previous revelation.

I was in the first match, the very first pokemon on the board.

My opponent was a Dragonite, who was standing not too far away from me, which I found out after glancing across the room.

 _Of all pokemon…. Why do I have to be in the first match…?_

I sighed and then looked further down the board and found that Naru was up against an Arcanine in the sixth match. I admittedly felt a little bit bad for her because of the type disadvantage, but I knew that if she had the confidence to apply to this place, she was competent in battle, so I hoped she would do well.

The last match that caught my attention was the one right after Naru's which was a Luxray against a Gallade, different from the Gallade that attacked Naru, but the interesting thing about this was the star next to the picture. That Gallade was a present member.

I looked around and found the Luxray who was to be participating in that match. When my eyes found them, they were noticeably tense, as they knew their situation. I mentally wished the Luxray good luck and turned my attention to the Bisharp, who was now in front of the projected ladder.

"Okay now, it's time for everyone to battle!" The Bisharp shouted, as the wall behind him collapsed, revealing a bright white staircase that led to the floor above.

Naru and I cast each other nervous glances, before following the rest of the crowd up the staircase.

When we reached the top, we were blessed with the sight of many stands for pokemon to sit as an audience, as well as an enormous arena poised at the center of the arena was made of metallic blocks, creating a very stable ground to be fighting on, while the walls were made out of an orange colored wood. The arena spanned over a gigantic amount of space, and it was safe to say that knocking your opponent into the wall would not be the easiest thing on the planet. All of this was surrounded by a large metallic dome that had gorgeous windows at the apex of it, showing us the midday sky.

 _Did I really miss this entire thing looking at_ _this place from outside?_ I mentally asked myself.

"Without stalling any farther, let's begin the first match! We have a very interesting setup to start us of, an Umbreon against a Dragonite!" The Bisharp announced.

Everyone started to fill up the spectating area within a matter of seconds. Instead of going there however, I had to go down to the arena, all while my heart was beating at about twenty times the recommended rate. Naru was following me down the long, wooden staircase that led to the prep rooms next to the arena. She couldn't enter the prep room with me, but she could at least walk with me there, after all, having her with me did ease my nerves a small bit. We got to the door that contained the prep room, it was a simple, metal door, nothing special about it. The purple wallpaper surrounding it shined with the same glow that the carpeting in the main lobby has.

"Well, I guess this is far as I can go, good luck out there Kuro!" Naru encouraged me with a smile.

"R-Right… I'll do my best." I answered with an attempted smile, but it was short lived as I stepped into the prep room.

The room, like the door, was very plain. There was no coloring to the walls whatsoever, just a solid metallic room other than the floor, which was made out of the same wood that the walls of the arena were made out of. There wasn't too much in the room itself, just a small locker to put any items that you didn't want breaking during your battle. I put my bag in the locker, but decided to leave my scarf on. Even if I just bought this scarf from some kind of grocery store as soon as I entered a town for the first time, knowing that my parents both wore a similar kind of scarf comforted me. It slightly boosted my confidence, despite being about to go up in front of more than fifty pokemon and battle. Not to mention, the material was fireproof, waterproof, and was highly resilient to anything that could possibly tear it.

I looked up above the exit to the prep room and saw a red light that I didn't notice on my way in, I guessed that the light changed color when it was time for me to walk over to the arena and start the battle with my Dragonite opponent.

As if on cue, I looked up at the light when it turned from a deep red to a bright green, prompting me to leave. I took a deep inhale and exhale, slapped myself in the face with one of my paws, and opened the door.

I took a few steps out, and I walked to my side of the arena.

Being down in the supremely large arena felt quite a bit different than looking down upon it from afar. I felt the cold metal against all four of my paws, and that cold seeped up and through my body. I heard various cheers from the crowd when my Dragonite opponent entered the arena, which didn't help the anxiety and nervousness I was feeling. I saw the Bisharp grab a mic that he had been keeping on a small tower near the arena. He then put the mic to his mouth, ready to speak.

"Are both sides ready to battle?" He asked. I reluctantly nodded my head, surprised that I could even manage that with my uneasiness.

I then looked across to the Dragonite, and they also nodded their head.

"Okay, then get ready!" The bisharp said.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

I crouched down into a battle position, watching the Dragonite raise their hands, seemingly ready to lob my head off.

"Battle begin!" The Bisharp shouted, prompting the crowd to cheer intensely.

As soon as I focused on my opponent, they immediately took to the skies, and cast me a glare from their height. I stood still, trying to observe what exactly the Dragonite was planning to do. It was almost as if they were observing me as I was to them.

The Dragonite poised their head back and swiftly launched a wave of fire directly at me a lot faster than I was ready for. I barely managed to hop out of the fire's proximity before looking back up at my opponent. Without waiting a second, The Dragonite was swiftly charging towards me, a blue aura surrounding its body. It swooped at me with immeasurable speed, but I still managed to quick attack out of the way just as I was about to get rammed. The Dragonite, not looking at all caught off guard by the dodge, swiftly turned its body back towards me and rushed back at me with the same speed. I was ready this time however, so I looked straight into the Dragonite's eyes, not moving an inch. The Dragonite continued to get closer to me, every millisecond that passed, they were quickly closing the small distance between us. As soon as the Dragonite was centimeters away from me, I swiftly ducked under the head of the Dragonite, and readied myself to counterattack. I found myself directly under the Dragonite, so I released the most powerful dark pulse I could muster, and I launched it directly into the stomach of the Dragonite. I heard them grunt in pain, and also was able to deduce that they were a Male, but that wasn't important right now. The Dragonite quickly recovered, and immediately sent a bright purple light flying at me. I didn't have a chance to react, so I took the light head on. I felt the searing pain drive through my body as soon as it hit me, and the beam sent me back quite a distance. My body slid across the metallic floor, and let me tell you, that didn't help with the growing pain in my body. I then steadied myself and stood back up, only to see the Dragonite high in the sky again, ready to attempt to blast me away again. I prepared myself for whatever attack the Dragonite was about to throw at me, but it just flew in one spot… Steadily lowering and rising while not making any attempt to attack me.

 _Why isn't he attacking? He has the height advantage and doesn't seem injured at all…_

I then considered a possibility.

 _Did my dark pulse do a lot more damage than I thought?_

I decided to test my luck and launch a shadow ball directly at the Dragonite. He dodged it, but his movements were sluggish and forced, confirming my initial guess.

 _That must be it! He's more damaged than I initially thought!_ I exclaimed in my mind.

Realizing this, I decided to rapid fire shadow balls into the sky, not necessarily trying to hit the Dragonite, but trying to make him move, trying to make him waste more energy. After about ten seconds of dodging, the Dragonite realized what I was trying to do, and then made a beeline towards me, still sporting the same glow as before, just not nearly as fast. I attempted to do the same exact motion that I did the first time, but the Dragonite expected that. As soon as I slid under him, he released a fire blast directly towards my back.

However, despite seeing it coming, I decided not to dodge.

I felt the fire practically burn off the fur and skin wrapped around my body, and I suppressed a scream in agony. The Dragonite flew slightly farther away from me, but close enough to see the burns all over my body.

What he didn't see, was the smirk I had on my face as I turned away, the burning starting to fade a little bit.

Soon after, the Dragonite's body also burst into flames, causing the same searing pain I felt, only slightly reduced due to its typing. However, it wasn't damage I was smirking about.

It was the fact that his wings had caught fire.

 _Now he can't fly anymore, it's time for me to push ahead!_ I mentally exclaimed.

Now that the Dragonite was standing and not flying, I used a quick attack to get close to him, and I engulfed my paw with a dark aura, smashing it into the body of the Dragonite. He let out a howl of pain and began to step away from me, but I kept pushing forward. Every time I got close enough to him, I jammed a paw into his stomach. He consistently attempted to counterattack, sending multiple fire blasts and dragon pulses back at me, but I kept my mind clear and swiftly strafed out of the way of each attack, all while rapidly approaching him. I may have stopped doing damage, but that didn't matter.

What really mattered, is that I had been pushing the Dragonite back the entire time.

As soon as we had gone a far enough distance, I took a step back and launched a dark pulse at the Dragonite, sending him flying back… Straight into the wooden border around the arena. The Dragonite's body slumped to the ground, and he was slightly groaning in pain.

"And that marks the end of the match! Victory goes to Kuro the Umbreon!" The Bisharp exclaimed.

The crowd surrounding me began to vigorously cheer, making me quite a bit uncomfortable, but I couldn't help the small smile from growing on my lips as I realized the situation.

 _I actually won… I have a chance at getting accepted into the organization!_ I thought excitedly.

I slowly walked towards the side of the arena, still a bit fatigued from being engulfed in flames… But the Audino waiting for me took care of it promptly and I was walking normally again.

I exited out of the prep room, only to be immediately greeted by Naru, a very excited smile plastered on her face.

"Congratulations Kuro! That was amazing! How did you manage to light him on fire?" Naru very rapidly asked.

To her question, I smiled and gave a short, one word answer.

"Synchronize." I stated.

Naru slightly tilted her head, prompting me to explain.

"My ability, Synchronize," I started to explain. "It can return elemental damage to my opponent if I'm attacked by them severely. It's usually just a small advantage when you screw up and get hit hard, but if you're creative with it, you can really use it to your advantage," I said.

Naru gave me a look of understanding and then returned to her bright smile.

The same bright smile that gave me chills.

I slightly averted my eyes from her, trying to make sure that the heat building up in my face didn't become visible.

"Come on, let's go back to the stands and watch the next match, it should be starting soon." Naru told me with a smile.

"Sure, sounds like fun." I responded, returning the smile.

With that, in high spirits, we both left the arena and headed back to the stands.


	4. A decisive confrontation

Naru and I finished walking back to the stands. The entire walk back I was trying to explain the biology behind how exactly my synchronize ability worked, but seeing as I barely understood it myself, I probably gave a very convoluted explanation. In return to this, Naru told me about her snow cloak ability, and also tried to explain how that worked, which was quite a bit more simple than the duality of something like synchronize. Either that, or she was just a lot better at explaining biology than me.

We both found ourselves near the back of the stands, when I noticed something else as the Bisharp was calling the next two contestants to report to the arena.

My wound from that Gallade has been healed, presumably from the Audino that healed me after I was done with my battle.

 _Must have some talented healing abilities to clear up that wound, as well as all of the bruises and burns…_ I thought.

"Okay, now we have a Chesnaught going up against one of our trusted members, Kai the Absol!" The Bisharp exclaimed, prompting a cheer from everyone in the crowd minus myself.

 _Kai…. The name of one of the ones that ruined my life…._

As soon as I saw Kai enter the arena on the other side of where the Chesnaught had entered, the Bisharp began to count down.

"One! And…. Battle begin!" A cheer erupted from the audience.

As soon as the battle was called, Kai immediately rushed towards the Chesnaught, his horn giving an ominous purple glow. However, instead of be intrigued by the interesting moves and style the two contestants were fighting with, I immensely tensed up, and began to tremble slightly. I tried my best to hide it, but the chills running up and down my spine were too much, and soon enough, I was very visibly shaking.

This did not go unnoticed by Naru.

"Hey… Kuro, are you okay? What's wrong?" She asked, her voice filled with concern.

I really wanted to answer her, but I couldn't bring myself to talk, I just looked down at the arena, and watched Kai shoot off a purple blade of sorts from his horn, promptly crashing directly into the Chesnaught.

Even know the Chesnaught looked very bulky, even know the Chesnaught braced themselves for the attack…

The attack had knocked them unconscious.

"And there you have it! The winner of this match is Kai the Absol!" Another cheer ripped out from the crowd, but I was still frozen. Not only still scared that Kai was that close, and that I had just watched him fight, but one thing floating around in the back of my mind that I've been trying to ignore for the longest time.

I was battling him next.

My breathing was still uneven from when I froze the first time, and I decided to get up and walk away from the crowd for a short while. Naru followed shortly after me.

"Kuro, what's wrong? Did something happen to you during the battle?" She asked me.

I was at a loss. I didn't know what to tell Naru. I didn't know if I should just come out and say my full, uncensored reason as to why I was terrified watching that fight, I didn't know if I should just tell her all of my memories right now. I didn't know what to say in the slightest.

So... I tried squeezing some kind of excuse out of my mouth.

"I-It's nothing… I think the crowd is just getting to me… Plus that Absol makes me uneasy." I somewhat lied.

 _Now is not the time to tell her about my past… Not when both of us still have application matches to worry about._ I shook my head and steadied my breathing, all while putting on the most calm expression I could muster. I then began to speak, once more, as calmly as I could.

"I'll be fine, I'm just not used to crowds, after all, I lived in away from everyone but my parents in a forest until a day ago, so I need to get used to it." I told her, feigning a smile.

Naru gave me a look of concern and slight doubt, but nodded slowly.

"Whatever you say, but if something is bothering you, you can tell me you know. If you keep all of your feelings and worries bottled up, it will just make them worse when you have to face them." She told me.

I listened intently to the advice given to me by a Glaceon that had already given me advice more than once in the past, despite knowing her for little more than a day of time. I gave her a nod and we both walked back to the arena.

* * *

 **Naru**

 _Something is wrong with Kuro…_ I thought to myself as we sat back down near the top of the stands.

Ever since that Absol, Kai, entered the arena, he had been severely tensed and looked almost scared. I initially thought it was because he knew that was his next battle, and because the Absol took out his opponent in one shot, it made Kuro worry. However, I quickly put that thought aside, as I realized that even before the battle had begun, Kuro still expressed the same tense visage, as well as uneven breathing.

 _He has some problem with that Absol, the question is… What exactly?_

I didn't want to pry for the reason, after all, if it's a reason so important for him to keep a secret to the point that he lied to me about it, then I don't want to force him to tell me.

 _It's not like I don't have things I also want to keep secret, even from Kuro._ I thought.

I decided to let it go for now, as the fourth battle of the ladder was about to begin, meaning I was on fairly soon. A Honchkrow and a Pidgeot, two fliers are going up against each other. While I was a small bit nervous that I was up next, I was more worried that I was going up against a fire type. I had no experience battling fire types, as my parents always made me avoid battles with them in case I got hurt.

 _Not really going to know what I'm doing when the time comes, but I have to try my best! Kuro managed to win his first match, and in a fairly creative way at that, who's to say I can't do the same?_ I mentally psyched myself.

I looked back down at the arena to see that the Honchkrow and Pigeot were flying circles around each other, seemingly faking each other out and only occasionally landing soft blows to one another. Both of them seemed to be around the same speed, so they both had a hard time actually landing hits on one another. After some endless flying passed, I saw the beak of the Honchkrow begin to glow, and they rushed towards the Pidgeot, seemingly not sure what to expect. However, soon after, the Honchkrow canceled it's attack and quickly followed up with a dark pulse, finally landing a solid hit on their opponent. The Honchkrow took quick advantage of the opportunity that had been presented to him and bolted towards the Pidgeot, its wings sporting a dark aura. The Honchkrow then slashed the Pidgeot with its wings several times over, flying back and forth past them, each time getting in another slash. After who knows how many rounds of slashing, the Pidgeot fell to the ground, all consciousness lost.

"And now it's over! The winner of this battle is Cole the Honchkrow!" The crowd cheered, making my hearing go a little bit astray. Everyone was cheering, having a great time, even if they didn't have a high chance of getting in. That is, everyone except Kuro, who was still practically frozen in his seat.

I gave him a slightly sympathetic gaze, still worried about what exactly he was so scared of. I was about to try and comfort him again, but a certain announcer kept me from doing so.

"Can I please have the next two contestants report to the prep room?" The Bisharp loudly asked.

I lightly sighed and got up from my seat, ready to face a very difficult battle. However, I was stopped when I saw a black blur stand up next to me. I turned my head to see Kuro, looking very slightly less scared.

He gave the best smile he could muster at the moment.

"Good luck Naru, I hope you do well!" He cheered at me.

I looked Kuro straight in the eyes, kind of baffled by his encouragement.

 _Even know he's hurting… Even know he's extremely scared… He still found the strength in his heart to encourage me._

I gave him an extremely bright smile and responded.

"Sure thing! I promise you I'll win and be accepted with you!" I assured him.

I soon turned my body back towards the stairs to the prep room, now with a brighter mood.

I entered the plain looking room, and put my black bag in the small locker, but left my scarf on. I saw Kuro leave his scarf on during the battle, and since he literally got lit on fire, then I imagined that my scarf would be fine during my battle.

I looked up above the door to the prep room and saw the light flash from red to green, prompting me to exit and head to the arena. I took a very large breath and pushed all of the nerves I was feeling deep down into my body, and then exited the room, only to be greeted by the furious cheering of the crowd.

I felt myself shrink in front of the large crowd, but tried my best to keep my stance strong. I looked across the massive arena to see my Arcanine opponent standing at the other end, already in a battle stance. I crouched down in a similar fashion that Kuro did and also prepared for the battle.

With that, the Bisharp started to count down.

"Three!"

 _Deep breaths Naru… Deep breaths…_

"Two!"

 _Keep your cool… you can do this._

"One!"

 _Think of Kuro's encouragement… Think that he knows you can win!_

"Battle begin!"

As soon as those words were uttered by our announcer, the Arcanine and I both seemed to rapidly approach each other, both of us waiting for the first attack to be thrown. The suspense didn't last long, as a wave of flames was soon launched off from the maw of the Arcanine. With the close range that we found ourselves in, I only had about a second to react, to which I sidestepped out of the way of the flames and launched a shadow ball at the ground, kicking up smoke and obscuring the vision of my opponent. The Arcanine began to panic, exactly what I wanted. I saw the Arcanine quickly leap out of the smoke, as they thought I was going to go in for a swift hit after I messed with their vision. I then launched an ice beam at the Arcanine, now soaring through the air. I did land the hit around its paws, but being an ice attack, not much damage was done. However, damage wasn't exactly what I was going for, I wanted to cause the Arcanine's body temperature to be as low as possible, slowing down their movements. No matter how high the body heat of a fire type is, it can still be lowered, and I wanted to use that to my advantage. After the Arcanine recovered from the leap into the air, they surprised me by immediately using an extreme speed to rush me down, fangs engulfed in flames.

The Arcanine landed a solid fire fang on the side of my body, prompting me to let out a small shriek as I felt the fangs sink deep into me, only to feel the spread of unwanted heat throughout my body. I launched a point-blank ice beam at the Arcanine's head, making them back off and release me from their grasp. There was blood slowly dripping down from the newly opened wound, dripping down onto my scarf. Not letting the pain get to me, I started to run towards the Arcanine, ready to attack them. I jumped up and over them, something they were clearly not expecting, because they seemed at a loss as for how to approach me after I jumped. Taking advantage of this, I landed on the back of the Arcanine, and I returned the favor he gave to me, filled my maw with an icy cold, and chomped down on the nape of the Arcanine's neck as hard as I could. They let out a small grunt, but nothing more, and they quickly threw me off, prompting me to quick attack away from them, keeping my distance. As soon as the Arcanine realized I wanted space, they once more, used an extreme speed to rush me down, but something was different this time. The Arcanine's maw was still filled with flames, and I was getting rushed again, but one thing set it apart from last time.

The Arcanine was moving much slower, presumably because of the cold I spread throughout its body. I didn't let the accomplishment get to me yet, as I still hadn't won. However, I saw a risky opportunity that I decided to follow through with. The Arcanine was closing in on me, quickly closing the space that I built up. As soon as the Arcanine was about to bite into my body again, I slid under them and grabbed the fur under its stomach with an unsheathed claw. I held on for dear life as the Arcanine tried to throw me off, but I wasn't going to let go easily.

I was going to win this battle.

Once I secured my grip, I started charging my energy in my maw, but I didn't hit the Arcanine with another ice beam.

I launched a water pulse straight into its stomach.

I heard the Arcanine grunt in pain a lot louder than they did with the last attack I threw at them, and I continued my assault, launching water pulse after water pulse, all exploding directly under the stomach of the Arcanine.

After the fifth one was shot off, the Arcanine fell over, prompting me to get out from under its body. I looked over at their face… Only to see that consciousness had left their body.

"And the battle is over! Surprisingly, victory goes to Naru the Glaceon!" The Bisharp excitedly exclaimed. I heard the crowd's screams echo through my ears and wondered if it would give me headache later.

I smiled to myself, extremely happy that I won.

 _I did it… I won… I have a chance to be accepted!_ I mentally cheered, very hopeful.

 _You hear that little Bro? Your sister might become one of the ones you used to admire so much… your sister might become a Raven!_ I prayed to my brother.

With positive thoughts in my mind, the Audino at the side of the arena healed me after the Arcanine was carried off to be healed once he regains consciousness.

With that, I walked through the prep room, and hurriedly rushed up the stairs, excited to talk to a certain Umbreon.

* * *

 **?**

I sat in the spectating chamber high above all of the applicants, observing who the new members of my association would be. All of the pokemon who have fought so far showed a lot of promise, especially two in particular.

The Greninja looked around the room, miles above where everyone else was spectating. She was located in a box, seemingly floating in the sky high above all of the other spectators, as well as the arena itself. The box had a very comfortable interior, sporting a soft, purple carpeting over the metallic floor, just like the purple coloring in the main lobby of the building. The walls sorted the color pattern of a rainbow, making the room look odd to someone who had never been here before, but as the owner of the association that is currently recruiting new members, she had grown greatly accustomed to the design of this room. In front of her lie a small panel with buttons to call her current members if need be, but she didn't want to pay attention to them right now.

What she wanted to pay attention to… Was the Umbreon that fought in the first match, along with the Glaceon that had just won her match.

 _I can tell by the way those two fight… That they will make valuable assets to us. They both are resilient to pain, and don't just throw attacks at their enemies, they form a strategy beforehand and attempt to put into into practice._

The two Eeveelutions definitely stuck out to me the most out of every applicant that has fought so far, but that's not to say that others haven't caught my eye as well. The Honchkrow from the previous battle certainly showed some prowess, and there was a Gabite in the fourth battle who really showed how well they can control their attacks, as well as find an opportunity to strike and take it.

 _So many intriguing pokemon this recruitment… I wonder what will become of this…_ I thought amusingly to myself.

After my internal rant was finished, I decided that it was time to continue observing my possible new recruits.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I sat calmly next to Naru after congratulating her on the amazing win against her Arcanine opponent. She had a very similar balling style to mine, she waits for an opportunity to push her opponent into a corner with a strategy she comes up with. She attacked the Arcanine with ice in order to slow it down, taking one step back in order to move two steps forward, similar to how I took a fire blast head on in order to prevent the Dragonite from continuing to fly around the arena.

 _Now that I think about it… There really was probably a better way I could have won that…_ I mentally scolded myself.

Regardless, I was in high spirits as both Naru and I had won our first matches, giving us an actual chance at being chosen to become members of the organization. I looked down at the arena, noticing that both of the next contestants were already down there, standing on their respective sides. On one side stands a Luxray, on the other stands a Gallade, a current member of the organization.

"Hey, Kuro," Naru started. "Who do you think is going to win this? There aren't really any type advantages or disadvantages here." She asked.

"Well, I honestly think the Gallade is going to win. If that Absol, Kai was any example, then their current members really do have a lot of battling talent." I told her.

My body shuddered at the thought of Kai… My nerves had mostly cooled down since my initial recognition of the Absol, but I was still feeling uneasy. Naru winning her battle certainly rose my spirits a bit, taking away some of the negativity and fear I had, but it was still present regardless.

I took my thoughts away from my own fear and focused on the battle that was about to start.

"Battle begin!" The familiar Bisharp shouted into his mic, followed by cheering from the crowd.

The Gallade quickly rushed at the Luxray, blades glowing with a light purple. The Gallade then shot out multiple purple blades that swerved through the air, all curving in different directions, and they never stopped running forward. The Luxray, looking slightly panicked, dodged all but one of the blades, the last one skimming lightly across their fur, but not enough to do any real damage. However, because the Gallade had never stopped moving, he was now directly in front of the Luxray, and began to slash their blades at the electric pokemon. The Luxray took three slashes from the seemingly endless stream, causing cuts in the Luxray's body that were bleeding slightly. In order to stop the barrage, the Luxray filled their fur with electricity, and let out a discharge all around him, spreading over quite a large range. The Gallade was hit by a small bolt, but he quickly recovered and sent a two shadow balls at the Luxray. The Luxray dodged the first one, and then batted away the second one my filling their paw with electricity and slamming it into the shadow ball. The Luxray looked like it was about to attack, but the Gallade rushed forward yet again, causing the Luxray to need to dodge their blades once more.

 _This Gallade really isn't giving them any breathing room, is he?_ I thought. _I can see why he's a current member._

I glanced over at Naru, who seemed to be so into the battle that it would take me shouting into her ear in order for me to get her attention. I smiled at the sight, finding it rather amusing, before turning my eyes back to the arena.

The Luxray was still dodging slashes from the Gallade, still with little to no room to make a move. At this rate, the Gallade would tire out the Luxray before they could land a solid hit.

It was almost as if the Luxray had the same realization as me, because as soon as I thought that, the Luxray launched a point-blank thunderbolt directly at the Gallade. The Luxray must have been charging that up for quite some time, as it was a very powerful blast of electricity that you wouldn't be able to release on the spot. The Gallade looked like he took the damage rather well, but he did stumble back a little bit, which was the moment the Luxray was waiting for.

The Luxray lunged at the Gallade, biting into his arm with electricity coursing through his maw. The Gallade let out an audible grunt in pain and attempted to slash the Luxray with his other blade. However, the Luxray was expecting this, and they released the Gallade in order to jump back, making the blade miss him entirely. The Luxray then took a few steps back, and seemingly charged up a green-like energy around their body. The Luxray then crouched down and promptly leapt at the Gallade, not giving him any time to react.

The Luxray connected a harsh giga impact directly into the center of the Gallade's body, sending him flying back at an immeasurable speed. The Gallade then slammed into the wall of the arena, and then slumped down to the ground.

The battle was over, and the Luxray had won.

"Amazing! This battle has concluded, and the winner is Kage the Luxray!" The Bisharp yelled.

The crowd then yelled louder than they have in any of the other battles, which was expected, as we just this Luxray, Kage, had just beaten one of the current members of the organization. It truly was an unexpected development.

"Wow, he just turned the fight back around on the Gallade in a matter of seconds!" Naru exclaimed, clearly surprised at the outcome of the battle.

"No kidding, once he had an opportunity to strike, he took the Gallade down immediately…" I followed, also surprised by the outcome of the battle we just witnessed.

"Okay, now that the first round of battles is over, I'd like to congratulate everyone who won their battles and is now moving on! However, we are going to have a slight change in environment for the future rounds!" The Bisharp explained.

 _Change in environment? What exactly does th-_ My thought was cut off when I looked back down at the arena.

Each one of the metal blocks were turning over, revealing their bottom sides to be covered in dirt and short grass. Each of the blocks turned around, one by one, changing the entire metal battlefield into a field of dirt, but still keeping the wooden walls.

I sat there, observing the new arena we would be battling in, curious as to why exactly they decided to change it in the first place.

Before I was able to dwell on the thought, an announcement was spoken, freezing me on the spot.

"Now then, the first battle of the second round will be between Kuro the Umbreon and Kai the Absol! Both contestants, please make your way to the prep room for your battle!" The Bisharp announced.

I couldn't move my legs, even know I knew I had to. I stood there, idle, not even paying attention to my surroundings.

It was then when Naru placed a paw on my shoulder.

"Kuro, are you sure you can battle like this?" She asked me with concern. "I don't know exactly what's wrong, but it seems like you may need to skip out on this battle." She suggested.

I could tell from her voice that, while she was concerned, she also really didn't want me to not partake in the battle, as that would severely decrease my chances for being chosen as a member. However, what would it matter if I couldn't battle? What did it matter if I couldn't face a fear I've had since I was eight?

 _I can't back out of this… I need to face him… Even if I can't move when the time comes._

I brought one of my paws up to my face and stared at it for a few seconds, confusing Naru a bit.

I then took my paw, and hit myself in the face as hard as I could.

I felt the pain spread throughout my head, but that didn't matter to me. What mattered to me, was that I broke myself out of my frozen state.

"Kuro! Why did you do that?" Naru hastily asked me, sounding a lot more worried.

"I just needed to snap myself out of a trance, I had some idiotic thoughts going through my head that I can't listen to if I'm going to try and fight against sadistic, murderous pokemon one day." I told her.

She shot me another look of concern, but I assured her with a small smile, showing that I was ready to face whatever I needed to.

She slightly sighed.

"Well, if you think you can do it, I won't try and stop you." She told me. "Good luck Kuro! Try your best!" She then encouraged me.

I then walked down the metal staircase and went through the prep room. I placed my bag in the small locker, and then tightened the teal scarf I wore around my neck. I then gripped it tightly, using it as a mantra of sorts to help my confidence. I stood in the prep room, staring at the red light, waiting for it to become green.

While I was waiting, I thought more about who I was going to battle from a standpoint of trying to win, and not one of trying to not have a mental breakdown. It didn't help that the Absol's only battle lasted about twenty seconds, but I at least knew one of his attacks, as well as how fast he can move.

 _I have to assume that he is going to have something that can hit me hard… Absols typically have something to hit most types. The problem is, I really don't have anything that can do too much damage to another dark type, so I'll probably have to push him into wall in order to win… That raises the question… How do I go about doing that?_ I wondered.

As soon as I was about to attempt to think of a strategy, I noticed that the red light above the door was no longer red, but shining a bright green.

I took multiple deep breaths, steadying my breathing before I went out there and faced my fears. I also hit myself in the face once more, letting the slight pain spread through my head in order to have something to distract me from my oncoming nervousness.

After I couldn't stall any longer, I stepped out of the room and into the newly dirt arena.

I took my first few steps out and felt the dirt attach itself to my fur, as well as the light brush of the small patches of grass that were scattered throughout the dirt. I looked across the arena, and standing adjacent from me giving me a blank stare, was an Absol. Kai.

One of the ones who ruined my life.

I felt myself stiffen a bit, but quickly shook away the feeling, as I was already done freezing up in front of my fears. I crouched down into a battle position, watching as the Absol didn't move a muscle.

"Okay Why don't we get started? Are both contestants ready?" The Bisharp loudly asked.

I gave a firm nod, and the Absol across from me slightly rose and lowered his head.

"Okay, then let's go!" The Bisharp said.

"Three!"

 _Keep your breathing steady… Don't freeze up… Remember that you can fight him now…_

"Two!"

 _Breathing….. Breathing…._

"One!"

 _Remember the advice Naru gave you, remember that she won her battle against all odds, and remember that you want to become members with her!_

"Battle begin!" The Bisharp yelled, causing the crowd to do the same.

Before I could even move, I saw a dark sphere flying towards me at an extremely fast speed. I dodged to the side, making the ball continue until it hit the wall, making an enormous puff of smoke appear, as well as a very loud explosion.

 _I'm glad that didn't hit me… That sounded painful…._ I thought.

I began to move myself to the center of the arena, occasionally kicking up dirt behind me as I did so. I noted how easily the dirt was kicked up, it didn't stick to the ground at all. I looked ahead of me and saw Kai sprinting forward, his horn turning pitch black with color. He launched a dark pulse directly at me, and I countered it with my own dark pulse. The two blasts hit each other, but once they connected, I noticed that both weren't completely gone, Kai's had powered through mine, and was still flying at me. I managed to dodge it, but then Kai rushed in right next to me, his horn glowing a brilliant green. He slammed his horn into the side of my body, not having an angle to pierce me. However, even if he didn't pierce me, the megahorn that slammed into my side caused me an extremely large amount of pain. The ache traveled through my body as I flew back and landed on the dirt ground. The impact with the ground only further increased the spread of aching pain in my body. I slowly got up to my feet, my legs shaking slightly, and turned my eyes back to Kai. He was rushing me again, his horn still colored in a bright green. I sidestepped Kai, and he continued to run past me before sliding on the dirt ground to a halt. Noticing his slight movement misstep, I immediately quick attacked over to him and encased my tail in a bright light. I slammed down on Kai's back with the most powerful iron tail I could muster, but he didn't make so much as a noise. All he did was turn his head back and look me in the eye, a menacing glare present. I quickly backed off from being right next to him, but as soon as I did, he launched another dark pulse at me. I managed to dodge this one, but I lost my footing on the dirt. Seeing this, Kai gave a smirk and ran up to me, sinking his fangs into the side of my body. As he crunched down, I suppressed a scream. His fangs entering my body and having pressure put on them was extremely painful. I gathered energy in my maw and fired off a dark pulse directly at the face of the Absol, but he stood there and didn't budge. The pain was still spreading through my body, as Kai didn't remove his fangs. Not knowing what to do, I unsheathed a claw on one of my paws. I lifted up my paw, and slammed my claw towards the side of Kai's body, piercing his skin. He still didn't make a noise, but I noticed his facial expression change, meaning that he definitely felt it. I slowly dragged my claw down, still inside of Kai's body. I noticed him twitch a little bit, but still not releasing me from his fangs. Finally, I created a dark pulse in the center of the paw that I still had its claws inside of Kai. I launched the attack, not going inside of his body, but putting a ton of pressure on the wounds I had just created on his side. He finally groaned in pain, almost as if he was suppressing a scream, and released me from his jaws. As soon as I felt the intense pressure lift off of my body, I shot another dark pulse, this time out of my mouth, and used it to propel myself backwards. Right after I did that, Kai jumped back, seemingly traveling the same distance that I did. However, as soon as I landed, I felt one of my front legs give out.

I found myself down a front leg, as whenever I tried to put weight on it, the new wound that Kai gave me would stretch out, causing an unbearable pain throughout my body. This posed a bit of a problem, while I had definitely done quite a bit of damage to the Absol, I had most certainly taken more. Kai was standing on all four of his legs still, and I was down one, making this situation not one I can see myself winning.

 _What can I do? He can outrun me with little to no effort… Not to mention he's less injured than I am…_

I lost myself in my thoughts for a second, wondering if there was anything I could do to turn the tables.

 _I need to find an opportunity to attack… And even then I have to be close enough to the wall in order to blow him into it…_

I didn't have any more time to think, as Kai was running towards me, although not as fast as before. I saw his horn glow a light green. I knew if I got hit by that, then I wouldn't even be able to stand. There was only one thing I can think of doing, so I slowly started to limp in the same direction that Kai was running, directly behind me. I only had about five seconds before Kai ran into me, so I turned around and readied myself.

Five

 _I just have to be precise._

Four

 _I can't screw this up…. If I do it's over._

Three

 _I've been building up energy in my body for a while now, I just need to release it after I get into position…_

Two

 _I know I can win as long as I get it right…._

One

 _Now! I have to act!_

Kai's horn was about a millimeter away from me. With perfect timing, I pushed off of my front leg, feeling the wound tear open further was excruciating, so much so that I gave a large groan, almost screaming as soon as it did. With that push however, I was able to slide past Kai, his horn missing me my a molecule.

I turned my head to Kai only to see that he was in the middle of stopping his momentum, not thinking I had any way to dodge.

I then took all of the energy I had been building up, and I released the largest hyper beam I could, aimed directly at Kai.

The blast made contact, and Kai flew across the arena, all while he let out a scream in pain.

His body smashed into the wooden wall, prompting another scream from Kai as the wall was slightly cracked.

I had actually won.

Kai looked towards me and held a strange gaze. It wasn't an expression of anger, or one of frustration.

I was a gaze of curiosity and slight worry.

I was about to ponder why he would feel like that, but then I looked down at myself and saw the massive amount of blood pouring out of the wound that I stretched out in order to win. It was bleeding a lot more than I thought it would, and after my adrenaline wore off, the mass amount of pain came back.

Soon after, I saw the Audino on the sidelines rush towards me, and I blacked out.

* * *

 **Naru**

I looked down on the battlefield, completely shocked at what had just happened.

Kuro had not only won against a current member, but he won while being at a severe disadvantage. It looked like he couldn't move one of his legs, or at least, not without severely injuring himself. I remembered what I had witnessed a few moments ago, and it made me cringe. Watching Kai sink his fangs into the side of Kuro's body, all while I could tell he was in extreme pain due to his facial expressions. I remember when Kuro finally shook Kai free, and seeing the blood drip of out Kai's mouth. I remember seeing Kuro struggle to stand up, seemingly not able to move his leg due to the injury sustained on the side of his body. I remember Kuro narrowly leaping out of the way and launching a hyper beam at Kai, promptly ending the battle in an amazing fashion. However, the image that stuck with me most from the battle, was the blood rapidly pouring out of Kuro's wound right as he jumped away, making the dirt below him change colors to a deep red.

I shook my head, trying not to think about the amount of pain Kuro felt during the battle. I instead turned my eyes to Kuro, lying unconscious in a pool of red. There was an Audino standing over him, a light stream of pink connecting the two. The Audino was presumably healing Kuro, something I was thankful for. I felt more anxious than I have in a very long time while watching Kuro fight, and there was more than one reason.

One reason was that I knew that Kai was a tough opponent, as he did win his first battle with one attack on a very bulky pokemon. Knowing that Kuro was up against that kind of power, I was already worried about Kuro's safety before the fight had started.

The next reason was Kuro's mental state. He definitely seemed better than he was when I first noticed that he was acting weird, but there was definitely something still wrong with him, no matter how much he wants to hide it from me.

 _Why won't you tell me? It's clearly bothering you…_ I thought to myself.

I shook away my thoughts and looked down at the arena to see the Audino carrying Kuro away, presumably to an infirmary of some kind. I got up from my seat and walked over to the metallic staircase near the arena, wanting to follow wherever Kuro was being taken. As I was walking by all of the other applicants, I heard everyone talking about the battle that had just taken place. Some were praising Kuro for beating a current member, some were saying that his victory was pure luck, some were curious about his injuries, and some were even scolding Kai, a seemingly superior pokemon, losing to an an Umbreon that wasn't even as big as he should have been.

I somewhat ignored all of the voices around me and found a separate door from the one leading to the prep room. The door had the same construction, a plain, metallic door with no noticeable details that stuck out. I slowly opened the door, and walked into the room.

The room wasn't very spacious, but sported a bright white coloring on all of its walls, as well as the ceiling. The floor had a slightly darker shade in its white coloring, but it was very soft, bringing a pleasurable feeling to my paws. While observing the rest of the room, I saw a small table that a few medical tools set upon it, next to the table standing an Audino.

Next to the Audino was a large bed with white blankets, under said blankets laid a familiar Umbreon.

"Kuro!" I exclaimed. I didn't mean to shout his name out loud, as there was another pokemon standing about ten feet away from me.

I hastily walked over to the side of the bed, only to find Kuro sleeping peacefully, his chest slowly raising and then falling. He looked calm, lying completely still other than the occasional stir in his sleep.

I softly smiled at the sight, realizing that Kuro was in a peaceful state. I heard footsteps and looked back to see the Audino standing closer to me.

"Hello there, are you a friend of this Umbreon?" The Audino asked.

I nodded to them and turned my gaze back to Kuro, noticing that he was stirring a lot more often than when I initially looked at him, signaling that he was close to waking up. It was then that I noticed that the Audino was gone from the room. I was confused as to where exactly the Audino went, there was no noise, so I didn't think she just walked out of the door. I then heard a voice behind me, snapping me out of my confusion.

"Naru? What are you doing here?" I turned my head to see Kuro awake, sitting up with his stretched out wound wrapped up in numerous white bandages, and his teal scarf was resting next to him, folded up nicely on the bed.

"Kuro! You're awake!" I said excitedly. "That was an amazing battle! Way to stick it out against a member!" I told him.

Kuro awkwardly scratched the back of his head with a paw, as he still wasn't used to communicating with others, let alone being praised.

"Thanks, Naru." Kuro told me with a smile.

After Kuro smiled, I looked him in the eye. I was about to return his smile, but then I observed his expression. I may have only known Kuro for a day and a half, but I was already able to read his emotions from his face.

I could tell that Kuro was giving me a feigned smile, and I could tell that Kuro was still emotionally distraught. He kept his fake smile while looking at me, but I could tell that he still had a lot of emotional turmoil in his mind.

 _Something is still bothering him… And I can tell that he's not going to get any better unless he talks about it with someone…_ I thought.

"Hey, Kuro," I began to ask. "Is there something bothering you? You seem like you're struggling with something in your mind." I asked him.

Kuro quickly averted his gaze and bit his lip, and I could see the anxiety building up in his eyes.

 _I know something is bothering you, and I need to make you open up about it._ I thought to myself.

I let out a light sigh, having no idea how to get Kuro to actually talk about what was bothering him, as I was never good at getting information out of people, let alone something that they clearly don't want to talk about. However, I knew I had to get him to talk, if not, then he would just keep suppressing his thoughts and emotions, and that would hurt him more as time passed.

"Kuro…" I started to say. "If something is bothering you, then you really need to talk about it, otherwise you're going to keep hurting. I know it has something to do with Kai, that's when you started to freeze up and act strange. Did something happen between you and him at some point? Or was it just his battling prowess?" I asked him.

Kuro seemed to look at me with an indifferent gaze, somewhat surprised that I caught on to why he was feeling the way he was. He once again averted his gaze, this time turning it to the bright scarf that layed down next to him. He took the paw that he couldn't move during his battle and ran it up and down the scarf. He then took a large breath, and turned to look me in the eyes.

"That Absol ruined my life." He bluntly said, prompting a slight flinch from me. "I used to live in a small cave, quite far away from any civilization, it was a very nice place, surrounded by beautiful grass and trees, I loved every second living there with my parents, despite the small size of the area." Kuro continued slowly.

 _That explains his amazement at something as simple as my home…. Also explains him being so uncomfortable around other pokemon._

"I spent the first eight years of my life living there, and it was a very peaceful eight years. That's when I woke up, and led outside by my Mother on the morning of my eighth birthday, only to see three unfamiliar pokemon waiting outside, talking to my Father. The three pokemon were an Umbreon, a Flygon, and an Absol. I didn't recognize any pokemon that weren't one of my parents, so I didn't know what to do in that kind of situation. I just stood there and watched the pokemon and my Father converse, when then something I wasn't expecting happened." Kuro seemed to tense a bit more than slightly when he said that, but took another breath and continued to talk.

"The Absol who had been talking to my Father, without warning, jammed his horn into the chest of my Father, and brought it up to his head, shooting a dark pulse and mutilating his head, creating the first scarring image I had that day… And also creating the fear I have for that Absol." Kuro then started to tremble, noticeably shaking as he forced himself to keep talking.

"My Mother didn't know how to react… A-and… the Flygon grabbed her with their claws.. Flew her up to the sky.. And they slammed her to the ground… Crushing her in front o-of me." Kuro started to stutter, and his shaking intensified.

"I stood there, completely…. Dumbfounded… N-not knowing what to do… The pokemon looked at me with a strange stare. The Flygon flew at me and pinned me down… T-the other two pokemon came over t-to me and t-they both started to a-abuse me, t-he Absol and U-Umbreon both.." Kuro took one of his paws and put it to his head, still shaking intensely. I observed Kuro's expression, and I saw tears begin to build up in his eyes.

Kuro's story was terrible. I thought I had a depressing past, but it was nothing compared to Kuro's. He had not only had clear sight of his parents when they were killed, but he was also directly used by them afterwards. Kuro was used in a way that would warrant killing the pokemon responsible, and I don't think anyone would oppose. I stood there, watching as Kuro covered his face from me, still trying to hold back tears. I felt bad that I was the one that made his memories resurface, but I knew that it needed to be done, otherwise Kuro would be an emotional wreck for who knows how long.

 _I hope I didn't just make him an emotional wreck by bringing this up._ I thought to myself, trying to think of a way to comfort him. While I was thinking, a memory came to my mind.

I had a memory of me feeling guilty, and didn't think I could be forgiven because I was the reason that someone got hurt.

I decided to copy that memory, and softly placed a paw on top of Kuro's head. I slightly shifted his paw from his face, giving me a view of one of his eyes. I think he was surprised by my gesture, but ignoring that thought, I gave him a gentle smile, and tried by best to comfort him.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea what you had been through, otherwise I wouldn't have made you look back on them." I assured him, but didn't break my gaze. "I have some things that happened to me in the past too, and since it's only fair, I think I should tell you. In the home I showed you, I used to live with my two Fathers and one Brother, and we lived a happy life, just as you did. I was always bullied due to the situation of my parents, but it wasn't enough to depress me or anything, as my family were the only pokemon I needed. However, one day I came home to see all three of them, dead in the kitchen of my home." My smile dropped when I had started to explain my past, but I still kept my eyes locked with Kuro's, refusing to break contact. I also had to push a thought away, now knowing what happened to my brother either before or after he was killed.

"I was devastated after what happened, and I had no idea who may have been responsible for their deaths. All of that with the other pokemon still bullying me prompted me to run away, not being able to stand it. However, after enough time passed, I came back home, and decided it was time for a change. I left Myriad, going to train myself so I could handle being alone, but then I bumped my head into a certain Umbreon traveling along a trail." I told Kuro, smiling at the thought.

Kuro looked at me, seemingly taking in the information that I had just given him, now knowing that neither of us had a family to call our own anymore. Our eyes were still locked, refusing to break from one another. However, I was not expecting Kuro to talk.

"I knew that something happened to you in the past… But I had no idea to what magnitude. I didn't want to bring it up with you, because I thought that I had things I wanted to keep secret and you did as well." He told me. "However, I think talking about it out loud is something I needed. I feel… Better now. I feel like some of the weight stuck in my chest has been lifted, I guess not telling anyone about what happened really was taking its tole on me… I never realized." He said. I noticed that he wasn't shaking anymore, and his stutter was also gone. I could tell he was feeling better.

Not only that, but I felt better as well. I had also never told anyone about the sight that I walked in on when I had figured out about my family, and although I didn't have something right in front of me to make me scared like Kuro did, I could still feel some weight lift off of my chest after both of us had told each other about our pasts. I looked over to see Kuro no longer suppressing tears, and now held a small smile. I returned the gesture.

"Thank you, Naru." He told me in a very appreciative expression. "I thought that if I just continued to bury my thoughts down, then eventually I would be able to get over them, but clearly that was not the case." He told me, keeping his smile.

"I mean, it helped me out too." I told him. "I never told anyone what happened to me either, so it also lifted some weight on me." I told him, keeping my smile as well.

Kuro then began to lightly laugh, something I wasn't expecting given the situation. I gave him a confusing look that Kuro was not ignorant to.

"I'm sorry," He started returning from his laugh back to a smile. "I just find it a bit strange that we've barely known each other for a day, and yet here we are, sharing secrets that we've both kept to ourselves for years on end." He told me with a large smile, a lot bigger than what he had initially.

"I never thought about it like that, I guess you're right." I told him, also lightly laughing.

Kuro took the blankets off of his body and grabbed the scarf from the side of his bed, wrapping it around his neck. He got up from the bed, his previous injury acting like it wasn't ever there to begin with.

"Let's go back to the stands and watch the next battle. After all, one of us may be going up against them in the future." Kuro said.

I nodded and we both left the infirmary in high spirits, completely oblivious to the fact that our entire conversation had been listened to.

* * *

Hello my readers! I just wanted to put a quick author's note here stating that I may or may not have screwed up the tournament ladder, and in the future, it might not make sense how many matches there are, or how early the semifinals and finals are. To be honest, I didn't really think it through, and I'm sorry if it bothers some people or some of the accepted members to the organization aren't mentioned in the tournament. Basically, this is my plan for the third round of the tournament. (Names will be mentioned in the future chapter) Also, sorry for some of these pokemon not being mentioned when the initial ladder of the tournament was introduced, as I was not thinking ahead at the time.

Kuro vs. Winner of Gabite vs. Lucario

Winner of Cole vs. Scizor (vs.) Winner of Frogadier vs. Noivern

Winner of Metang vs. Bronzong (vs.) Winner of Charizard vs. Electrode

Winner of Naru vs. Kage (vs.) Winner of Machamp vs. Zoroark

Yes, this would make these battles the quarter finals, and once more, I want to apologize, as making a tournament ladder for fifty-two pokemon was not something I have time for, (Or something I have the creative mind to do.) Plus, I don't want to spend ten chapters on the tournament, as that would get pretty repetitive after a while.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has decided to read, follow or favorite this story, it really means alot to me!


	5. A brutal struggle

**Kuro**

Naru and I returned to the seats that we first sat in before going to the infirmary. We also came back to see that not only the next match had concluded, but the next one after that too, neither of us being able to observe the battles at all. A gabite named Lucas had apparently beaten a lucario with complete ease, the battle lasting a matter of seconds. Next, the honchkrow named Cole beat a scizor, seemingly the same way he beat his pidgeot opponent, but didn't have as hard of a time because of him being able to fly while his opponent was a sitting duck. At the moment, there was a frogadier and a noivern battling, neither one giving an inch. While the battle definitely interested me, there was something on my mind that I had forgot to mention to Naru back in the infirmary.

"Hey Naru," I started to ask, prompting her to turn her head to face me. "You said that Gallade who attacked you had a symbol on his body, right? A strange spiral with a hand of a bipedal in the middle?"

"Yeah, it's not a sight I can easily forget," Naru seemed to slightly shudder, making me feel guilty. "Why do you ask?"

"The pokemon that attacked my family when I was eight held the same symbol, all three of them." I told her, and she put on a thinking expression. "Although… It looks like Kai is somehow hiding his… It was on the top of one of his paws, it would be easily visible if he didn't do anything to hide it."

Naru seemed to ponder in thought just as I did. My mind wasn't too focused on how Kai was able to seal what seemed like a branding on his paw, I was instead making a connection. Since the three that attacked my family all had this symbol, as well as the gallade that tried to kill Naru, that would mean that it is most likely that the three did actually belong to an organization and weren't working alone. That cleared up another question I have had in my head for a very long time, however, a much more prominent and worrying question was all too present in my head.

 _If Kai has that symbol… Signaling that he is part of some kind of murderous group… then why is he a part of this organization? Isn't this place trying to stop the ones he works under?_

I think Naru had the same thought, as she was also deeply thinking, possibly wondering why Kai could be a member here and a part of the murderous group.

 _Is he maybe a double agent? Could he be here for answers? Could he be here to figure out what they're up against? Could he be here to see the new recruits and what they may be up against in the future? Did he have a change of heart? Is he-_

I rubbed my face with my two front paws, trying to push out all of thoughts and new questions that were begging to be answered in my head. I let out a heavy sigh and looked back at the arena to see the frogadier promptly slam the noivern to the ground, unconscious.

"There you have it! Moving on to the next round is J the frogadier!" Loud cheers erupted from the crowd, but not loud enough to silence the questions in my head.

I figured that, right now, there were too many uncertainties to assume anything about Kai and his involvement in both of the groups, but it's not something to completely push aside, so I decided to keep it in the back of my mind, not wanting to give myself a headache. I looked back down towards the large arena from our high place in the stands to see a metang and a bronzong repeatedly crash into each other, but the metang seemed to get the better of the clash every time, and I could tell the match wasn't going to last much longer. I decided that it would be better for me to focus on the battles happening in front of me rather than focusing on questions that I'm nowhere near answering. With that thought in mind, I kept my focus on the metang slamming the bronzong into the wall, promptly ending the battle.

* * *

 **Naru**

I wasn't sure what to make of the information that Kuro and I had put together since we both told each other about of pasts. It really was nice to finally have a connection, to have some kind of affirmation between both the pokemon who attacked Kuro and his family, as well as my own attack. However, it also raised more questions… A lot more questions… I honestly didn't know if we were closer to coming to some kind of conclusion or farther. It's like we took one step forward but two steps back… I don't know what to think about it anymore. I let out a sigh and looked towards the battle going on in the arena.

There was a charizard flying high above an electrode, occasionally blasting fire towards the ground in order to sanction off the electrode to a corner of the arena. In order dodge some of the fire blasts, the electrode would rapidly spin around on the ground and kick up a large amount of dirt from the arena, keeping them out of the line of sight of the charizard. However, this really didn't matter in the end, as the charizard let out a gigantic blast of fire, directly into the center of the dirt cloud.

Once the dirt cleared, the electrode lie in the center of a ring of fire, unconscious. It looked like a lucky shot from the charizard, but I don't think it would have mattered, as the electrode was at a disadvantage the entire time. This bisharp announced the victory of the charizard, whose name was Sylph. After the end of the battle was announced, I felt a wave of anxiety hit me.

 _I guess my battle is next…_

I sighed in slight dread as I knew that the pokemon I was going up against was not going to be an opponent I wanted to battle… considering that he beat a current member in a matter of seconds once he got an opening.

 _Guess I just can't give him the chance to properly strike… If I do… He'll annihilate me._

I tried to cast some of my uneasiness aside, hoping that maybe my nerves would subside if I distracted my thoughts for a little bit. I decided to turn to Kuro.

"What did you think about the last match?" I asked him, my voice shaking slightly.

"I thought it was a good one, the electrode did everything they could do given the situation, I honestly thought that kicking up the dirt was a very smart thing to do, but I think they were fighting a losing battle from the start." Kuro responded.

I liked listening to Kuro give his opinion on battles. He seemed like he was pretty keen on observing how other pokemon fight, and he seemed to analyze the way the pokemon battle for reference, as opposed to watching them for entertainment. It really is too bad that, because of the injuries that he sustained from his battle with Kai, he missed out on watching his next opponent fight, as the way he analyzes other pokemon fight would probably give him an advantage. I was always entertained by watching other pokemon battle, but I could never analyze them like Kuro does. I started to think that I should learn how to look at battles like that, Arceus knows it would help in this kind of place…

My thoughts were cut short, and my anxiety started to rise yet again when I heard the bisharp's announcement.

"Can the next two contestants please report to the prep room for the next match? Thank you!" The bisharp announced.

I shuddered, and shakily brought my paws to the ground, ready to head to the prep room.

"Good luck out there Naru!" Kuro said from behind me. "I know you have a tough fight ahead of you, but just try your best! Think outside the box if you need to! Just don't give up!" Kuro encouraged me.

I felt a warm feeling inside of me after Kuro sent me his encouragement, feeling my confidence begin to slowly grow.

"Thanks Kuro!" I responded with a smile that was a lot less nervous than it was previously.

I headed to the familiar metallic staircase that led to a familiar plain-looking metal door. I stepped into the prep room and put my jet black bag into the locker, still leaving my scarf wrapped tightly around my neck. I took a few breaths, ready to step out of the door into the dirt arena as soon as the light overhead turned green. I had no idea how to handle this battle, as the only thing I could observe from the battle between Kage and the gallade was that Kage is fast, and I can't leave myself open, not even for a second, or else he'll knock me out in that second.

 _I really need to make sure I don't give him an opening, but how do I really make sure? I can have all of my bases covered, but I need some way to hit him as well. That gallade only managed a few small cuts, and I'm not as fast as that gallade's slashes… So will I even be able to land a hit, even if I don't leave myself open?_

I brought a paw up and lightly rubbed the side of my head, briefly closing my eyes to let my thoughts settle, otherwise I would just perk up my anxiety again. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw that the light above the exit had turned green. I took in a deep inhale and exhale, before walking out of the door, facing the large arena before me.

As soon as I set one of my paws into the arena, the crowd cheered loudly. I looked across to the other side of the arena to see Kage already there, stretching his limbs out and getting into a battle stance. I did the same, crouching down, ready to begin whenever the start was called, despite my nerves hindering my focus.

"Are both sides ready?" I gave a small nod to the bisharp and Kage did the same.

"Okay then! Let's get going! Three!"

 _I cleared my thoughts, ready to act._

"Two!"

 _I need to think of a strategy… But I need to observe his movements first._

"One!"

 _Don't let Kuro down!_

"Battle begin!" The bisharp yelled.

As soon as those words were uttered, Kage sprinted forward, stopping in the middle of the arena. I didn't move from my spot, waiting to react to whatever he was trying to do. Soon after, he stuck one of his paws as deep into the dirt as he could, and then his fur seemed to tense up with electricity. Soon after, a gigantic amount of dirt practically covered the entire arena, making it so I couldn't see a thing.

Before I had a chance to think, I saw a dozen bolts of electricity fly at me though the dirt cloud. They didn't seem to have much accuracy, but one of them came very close to me, to which I hopped away from the area, turning into another puff of the dirt cloud. The sparks of electricity were still flying towards the area I was previously standing at, which clued me in on the fact that Kage didn't know where I was either, he just wanted to blind both of us knowing that his attacks had a wide range.

 _Does that mean he's launching his attacks from the middle?_

I tried to confirm my thoughts by firing an ice beam towards where I saw Kage standing earlier. Sure enough, I heard a grunt come from where I launched my attack, suggesting that I hit him. The dust cloud soon cleared, revealing that Kage had started to push up towards me. He had flames gathered in his maw, which was something I really didn't want to come close to. Since Kage was faster than me and I knew I couldn't dodge at this range, I launched an ice shard directly at the ground below me, kicking up another large cloud of dirt. I had hoped that this would make me able to throw Kage off, but he very quickly reacted by sending multiple small bolts out, clearing enough of the cloud for him to get sight of me for a second.

One second was more than enough, as I quickly felt a searing pain soar through my body, and felt fangs impale deep into my skin. Feeling the heat go throughout my body was incredibly painful and I knew I had to do something. I payed attention to the positioning of Kage to me. He was a decent amount bigger than me, meaning that he was standing above my body in order to bite down on me. Taking note of this, I filled my mouth with a brutal cold, and bit down on Kage's leg as hard as I could. I heard him grunt, and clearly not wanting to deal with my fangs in his leg before I froze it over, he tossed me aside, sending me a decent distance away. I got back to standing on my four paws, still hurting from the previous attack, but the pain was more than manageable.

 _If I can handle it from a fire-type, then I can handle it from him._

I decided that I had to make some kind of move, I had to do something to get another hit in on Kage, the question was, what exactly could I do? While searching my thoughts, I noticed that Kage was shaking one of his front paws, more accurately, the one that I sank my fangs into. A thought then came to my mind, and I decided to act on it, despite not knowing if I'd just be wasting my energy. I focused on the air above and around me, causing small clouds to form over the arena, not quite reaching the stands. Small pellets of hail began to fall from the clouds, causing Kage little more than an annoyance to the shift to cooler weather, as well as the small ice rocks hitting him every so often.

However, I didn't do it for steady damage and distractions, I used it for my ability. I felt energized, and my body felt lighter. Kage looked at me, knowing why I had this feeling. He attempted to launch a thunderbolt at me, but I swiftly moved out of the way last second, looking like I disappeared. I could see the slight confusion on Kage's face, not knowing exactly where I went. In reality, I was slowly walking towards him, seemingly invisible. Once I got close enough, I hit Kage with the strongest ice beam I could gather at the moment. It propelled Kage backwards, launching him quite the distance, not enough to hit the wall, but it definitely did some damage, plus there was a small gathering of ice on the side of his body, as well as ice from my previous ice fang starting to accumulate on his leg, further impairing his movement.

The hail that I had set up was still falling, so I began to tread lightly towards Kage once more. However, this time, as soon as I was within attacking range again, Kage launched a thunderbolt directly at me at near point blank range. It hit me, causing me to shriek for a second, and also sending me a few feet back. I tried to stand up, and although I managed to get on all four of my paws, I was shaking and twitching, still feeling the electricity course through my body. It was hot too, not quite the same kind of heat I feel from a fire attack, but heat nonetheless, and I'm not exactly fond of heat. After I finally recovered, I noticed that the hail I had set up had stopped falling, canceling out my snow cloak. Now that I had lost my evasion advantage, I looked over at Kage to see part of his body still frozen, but he didn't even have to move in order to hit me, with a very strong attack as well.

 _Looks like I can't win just by impairing his movement…._ I thought.

I saw Kage start to charge up another thunderbolt, to which I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't sure if I could dodge in my current state, so I was at a loss.

 _If I get hit by that… I don't know if i'll be able to move with all of that electricity coursing through me… But what can I do?_

I scavenged my thoughts, but then a familiar voice rang through my head.

' _Think outside the box if you need to! Just don't give up!'_ Kuro's words echoed in my mind.

I considered any possible options that I may have had here, and I could only think of one. It was quite a stretch, I didn't know if it would work, and it would require me to dodge the attack, all of these things making it more unlikely that I would actually succeed.

 _But… That doesn't matter. In the end I can't give up! Right Kuro?_

I readied myself, prepared for the thunderbolt that was about to be launched at me. I saw Kage back up a few steps, albeit slowly because of the ice wrapped around his leg and body. I saw his fur brightly glow with electricity, and soon after, a large bolt of lightning launched from his body, flying straight at me. In response to this, I shot an ice shard directly at the bolt, also leaping to the side, barely dodging it. My ice shard collided with the electricity, and began to glow brilliantly. I would admire its shine if I didn't need to focus on what I was doing as much as I did. The ice shard absorbed the light from the bolt, and fell short just before hitting Kage.

However, after it landed on the ground right in front of him, I focused, and made the small shard of ice explode, also releasing the mass amount of light. Since Kage was standing a few inches from this light, he immediately shielded his eyes, temporarily blinded. He reeled back a few steps, but then returned to his stance, eyes shut tight. Noticing my opportunity, I closed in on Kage, and I readied an ice beam, my goal to finish the battle. After I built it up, I launched the ice beam straight at Kage. It closed in on him, but right as it was about to make contact, I was caught off-guard.

Kage shot out another thunderbolt, it flying directly through my ice beam, overpowering it. The thunderbolt then made contact with me, causing me a searing pain that quickly made its way throughout my entire body. After the shock had worn off, I found that I couldn't move my legs, Or any part of my body for that matter. I then felt my weight drop to the ground, and I let my consciousness leave me.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I watched from the stands as Naru dropped unconscious. She looked as if she had been completely paralyzed before her body finally couldn't take the battle anymore. I watched as the audino picked Naru up in her arms, and then walked in the direction of the infirmary. I wasn't worried about her safety, as I knew if the audino could heal the wounds that I received from Kai, then they can heal the wounds that Naru had sustained. I then saw a second audino walk up to Kage and heal the parts of his body that were frozen, as well as patch up some of the scratches and other wounds that he had sustained from Naru, including his temporarily impaired eyesight.

I had to admit, I was upset that Naru lost. She had fought so well, putting in a lot of damage to a Luxray that made quick work of a current member. She even made great use of her snow cloak ability, and the move she made to blind Kage was a brilliant idea. However, I guess it just wasn't enough to beat someone like him.

As much as I would have liked Naru to win, I couldn't deny that the battle that went on between her and Kage was a spectacle to behold, watching Naru slowly take away Kage's mobility and senses, all while slowly stacking up damage whenever she had an opportunity. However, watching Kage's ability to counter all of the things that Naru threw at him was also very impressive. He seemed to rely on the wide range he can cover with his attacks whenever his eyes weren't a liable option, a direct counter to Naru's strategy. Although, there was one point where he attacked with almost pinpoint accuracy when seemingly not being able to see, and I think he just felt the cold from the ice beam and traced it back to Naru. That's one weakness that some ice types seem to have, since their attacks and bodies themselves give off a very cold temperature to those around them unless controlled, they can't really sneak up onto opponents while in close range. With all of the pressure that Naru was dealing with, she most likely didn't consider the temperature of her attack to be a deciding factor in the battle.

 _Guess it can't be helped… She fought her hardest, and definitely stuck out, which will help her chances of being chosen for the organization._

I got up from my seat in the stands and started to walk down towards the infirmary, seeing a machamp and zoroark walk down the adjacent staircases, presumably being the contestants of the next battle.

I opened the plain door leading to the infirmary, walking into the white room, as well as the very soft carpet that was spread across the floor. I looked over at the single bed, and saw Naru under a few blankets, gently breathing as she slept. I also saw her scarf wrapped around her bag on the side of the bed next to her. She looked very peaceful, and I found myself smiling at the sight. I noticed that the audino that was here when I was laid up was nowhere to be seen, but I felt like I was being watched. Disregarding it as paranoia, I noticed that Naru began to stir in her sleep.

Naru slowly opened her eyes and rose her body up in the bed, releasing a large yawn, but slightly wincing at her remaining pain from her battle. She then turned her eyes to me, and seemed a bit surprised that I was standing about a foot away from her.

"Morning Naru," I greeted. "How do your injuries feel?" I then asked.

"Oh! Kuro! I feel fine, if a bit sore. Those thunderbolts didn't feel too great you know. I still feel the electricity soaring through my fur." Naru told me.

I lightly laughed at Naru tapping her entire body with her paws, seemingly trying to deter the feeling of an electrical shock.

"I'm sure it'll wear off soon, if that giant, stretched out wound that Kai gave to me doesn't hurt anymore, then your shocks can only last so long."

"I hope you're right… This is really bothersome… I feel all staticy…" She responded, lightly smiling.

"You sure put on a show though, I was really surprised when you blinded Kage with that ice shard, that was great thinking!"

Naru then seemed to slightly avert her eyes, looking to feel a small bit uncomfortable with my praise.

"It wasn't that amazing… After all… It didn't work in the end." Naru sulked. I didn't want her to feel bad about her loss, especially considering how amazing the battle was, but it was understandable. I mean, she put her all into that fight, and still ended up not quite emerging as the victor.

"Don't worry about the result too much," I said, lightly tapping my paw on her head once. "You battled great, but Kage is a tough opponent. Remember how he destroyed a current member in a matter of seconds? You weren't up against some random stranger with no skill, you were up against a pokemon that had clearly seen his fair share of battles. You did all that was in your power, and you did amazing. Honestly, with the creative moves you pulled, I'd be pretty surprised if you didn't get picked as a member!"

Naru looked at me with a somewhat baffled gaze, like she wasn't expecting encouragement, or like I said something strange. However, soon after, her dumbfounded gaze was replaced by a bright smile that gave me a chilling feeling in my spine.

"Thanks Kuro! Maybe you're right. I hope you are, I really want to get accepted with you!" She exclaimed, somehow brightening her smile even more.

I then felt a large amount of heat flush to my face and promptly averted my eyes. I wasn't sure why Naru was able to get this emotion out of me so easily, but it wasn't exactly unpleasant, so I didn't do anything to stop it.

"I'm sure we'll both be accepted in the end." I told her with a smile. "We might want to get to the arena now, the next battle may be close to over, and I'm up after this one."

"Sounds good! Let's go!" Naru got up, unwrapped her scarf from her bag and switched it to her neck. She then slung her bag over her body and walked next to me back to the stands we came from.

Once we arrived, I didn't even sit down, as I realized that the zoroark had overpowered their machamp opponent, signaling the end of the battle, which means that I would be up next anyway.

"There you have it! Victory goes to Vero the zoroark!" The crowd shouted, seeming amazed by the victory of yet another pokemon at a type disadvantage.

 _I guess types really don't matter much when you're skilled…_

"Hey, Kuro, how do you feel about your next match?" Naru asked me.

"Well, I have no idea how this gabite fights, but I do know that the last battle that he was in ended in about thirty seconds, so I am a bit worried." I confessed, letting a slight sigh out.

As if on cue, I was called. Along with my opponent to the prep rooms, but not before a different announcement came out.

"Now, since we're entering the third main round of the application, the arena will now switch its environment once again!" The bisharp announced, resulting in collective excitement within the audience.

 _What kind of change is coming out now?_

I looked down at the arena to see the blocks that made up its construction begin to turn themselves over once more, switching the mostly dirt ground with what looked like some kind of soft, yellow, foam-like flooring. It was certainly strange, not the kind of environment I would ever think I would battle in. Ignoring the strangeness of the field choice, I headed down the familiar metal staircase to the prep room.

After I entered the prep room, I placed my brown bag in the same locker that I have the previous two times. After that, I stood under the red light, waiting for it to turn green. Surprisingly, I didn't have the same large nervousness pass through me that I had prior to my first two battles.

 _Then again, One was my first battle and the other one was against Kai, so I guess there really isn't as much pressure this time around, despite me knowing that my opponent will probably be a tough one._

I looked up at the light above the exit, noticing that it had now changed its color to green. I promptly walked out of the door, and onto the yellow substance that now made up the arena. It was very soft to the touch, and I felt like if I slammed my head into it, I wouldn't have felt a thing.

I looked across the arena to see my gabite opponent, Lucas standing across from me. He was in a battle-ready position, his claws bared towards me. I crouched down, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. It was then that the bisharp asked us if we were ready, to which we both nodded.

"Three! Two! One! And… Battle begin!" The bisharp yelled.

Lucas instantly rushed me down, launching a light purple beam at me, all while his claws shined with a brilliant white color. Feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the two attacks flying towards me, I sidestepped out of the way of the beam and prepared myself for the onslaught that was most certainly coming from Lucas' claws. He slashed at me quite a few times in succession, but I managed to barely dodge all of them, before Lucas jumped back swiftly. I took notice of the way that he slashed at me, taking note of the way he swung his arms at me.

 _He has a pattern…_ I thought.

Lucas then engulfed his entire body in a blue aura, and rushed towards me. He came after me with incredible speed, and I just barely managed to slide under his rush. Once he quickly recovered, he began to slash at me with his claws again, just what I had hoped for. He slashed at me the same as last time, so the dodges I made weren't as narrow, I was expecting what was coming. I then waited for the one moment in his onslaught that he slipped up, near the end. He tried to take one last slash at me while getting into a position to bolt away afterwards. Because of his shift in position, he left himself open for a second. I promptly used that second to hit him straight in the side of the face with a dark pulse, sending him flying back and reeling. I decided not to push him, as he seemed to be expecting that, readying himself for an immediate counter. He then began to sprint towards me once more, this time jumping in the air, right above my head. He was readying a fire blast to hit me with, as I saw the small amount of flames building up in his mouth. This definitely confused me.

 _He most likely knows about my synchronize, so why is he trying to hit me with fire?_

 _Unless… He's baiting me._

He looked like he knew this next attack would hit, like he thought I would take it on purpose in order to cause him some damage. Instead of doing this, as soon as the blast released from his mouth, I jumped in between him and the fire, my tail emitting a light glow. I then slammed Lucas' stomach with an iron tail. Lucas went flying back once again, getting dangerously close to the wall. Seeing my opportunity, I shot a small flurry of shadow balls at him. He seemed to think I was trying to push him into the wall with that attack, but in reality, I was just creating an opening. While Lucas was intercepting or dodging one of the many shadow balls that I sent at him, I used a quick attack to immediately rush him, something that greatly caught him off-guard. I charged over to him and slammed my head into the center of his body as hard as I could, launching him into the wall.

With that, I had won the battle.

"And there we go! The winner of this battle is Kuro the umbreon, going to the semi-finals! Also the third perfect victory we've seen today!" After the bisharp made that announcement, the crowd vigorously cheered.

 _What exactly is a perfect victory..?_ I wondered.

Deciding not to dwell on the though too much, I wandered out of the arena, wanting to head back up to Naru and I's spot up in the stands.

Once I made it back up, Naru was there to greet me with an incredibly positive attitude.

"Great job Kuro! I wasn't expecting you to pull off a perfect victory!" Naru exclaimed, somewhat flustering me.

"Yeah.. About that… What exactly is a perfect victory?" I asked, very curious.

"Oh, you beat your opponent without getting hit, the only others to do that before you were Kai fighting that chesnaught, and Lucas, in the battle before yours." She explained. It made a lot of sense when she told me what it was, and I felt a little bit embarrassed that I didn't pick up on that immediately.

"Really… I didn't even realize that I did… Guess I was too in the moment." I told her, scratching my head, still a bit embarrassed.

I cast my gaze down to the arena, and I saw Cole the honchkrow, going up against J the frogadier. The two were going back and forth very quickly, J trying to propel Cole into the ground, but Cole wouldn't let him, and even if he did, I don't think the softness of the floor would emit to any real damage. I watched as Cole landed multiple aerial aces on J, causing some pretty severe damage over time. Cole directly countered J's fighting style, as he usually tries to knock his opponents into the ground, but this environment makes that a useless strategy even if he does pull it off. This combined with the double team that Cole had set up to finish off J, put him at a huge advantage. This is a similar situation to how Naru fights by eliminating her opponent's mobility and senses, directly countered by Kage's ability to attack from anywhere on the arena, and also covering a wide area.

As expected, J couldn't withstand the onslaught of aerial attacks from Cole, and he lost consciousness, only landing a few small hits on Cole. After all was said and done, J was escorted to the infirmary, while I was glad I studied Cole's way of fighting, which was mostly aerial combat.

 _Now this raises the question, how do I counter that..?_

I looked back down at the arena to see a metang and a charizard both enter the arena, looking eager to fight. After the battle was called to start however, I was distracted by a familiar luxray walking towards Naru and I.

"Umm… Hello Naru and Kuro. As you know, my name is Kage." He introduced himself. I found it a bit strange that he wanted to talk, but I decided that there really wasn't a problem with it, and it might even help me with getting used to being around others.

Not that anything would have stopped Naru in the first place.

"Hi Kage!" She cheerfully greeted. "That was a great battle I had with you! Although I don't know how exactly you tracked me while blind, but it was still great!" Naru energetically said.

Kage seemed taken aback from Naru's overly friendly attitude. Although, he still kept the conversation going.

"Oh, I just felt the cold from the attack you launched at me, it was enough to gain a general idea of where I should direct my attack." He explained, meaning my thoughts earlier were correct. "But I have to say, I wasn't expecting you to have something that blinded me, that was a pretty impressive maneuver."

"Thanks! I kind of thought of it on the spot though, I'm not some master at planning." She confessed. However, she turned her gaze to me, noticing that I wasn't talking, as I didn't find it necessary to interrupt the exchange between the two. "If there's anyone who can come of with strategies, it's Kuro here!" She said as she firmly placed a paw on my head.

"W-What? I'm not exactly a master strategist." I responded, Naru not removing her paw.

"Kuro can observe another pokemon's battling and notice small things to form a plan around, so if it's strategy that you want, just ask him!" She lifted her paw from my head, leaving me visibly flustered.

"Really? How close do you observe others, Kuro?" Kage asked.

"Well… I just look at the way other pokemon battle and if I happen to see something like a pattern or a weakness, then I act on it. I'm not some master at coming up with strategies, as most of my battling comes to my mind on the spot." I tried to disregard some of Naru's unnecessary praise.

"I see, that's still a very useful skill to have! Most of the time, I just rely on acting with my instincts, if I went in with a pattern or weakness in mind, I would probably perform better." Kage said.

"Well, it seems like what you're doing now is working perfectly fine, so you have no reason to seek out new ways to win a battle, after all, you beat a current member in a matter of seconds, if that isn't good battling prowess, I don't know what is." I assured him with a small smile.

"I think it's proof that both of our styles work, after all, you beat Kai with your way of battling, so you have impressive prowess as well!"

I slightly shivered at the mention of Kai, but quickly brushed it aside and gave Kage a reassuring nod.

I turned my eyes back to the arena, watching as Sylph the charizard has thoroughly knocked out her metang opponent, giving her the victory for the battle. Soon after the arena was cleared, the next two contestants were called, one being Kage, the other being Vero, his zoroark opponent.

"Well, it looks like I'm up, it was nice talking to you two! And Kuro, hopefully we'll meet in the finals!" Kage said, before walking off to the prep room.

After he had left, Naru looked at me with a curious gaze.

"Umm… Is something wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing's wrong, I just thought that you may want to work on your social skills, you didn't say a word until I involved you." Naru advised me.

"Well… I've never really talked to another pokemon other than you or my parents before now, so what did you expect?"

To that, she gave me a light laugh, and we both turned to watch the next battle unfold.


	6. The finals: Kuro Vs Kage

**I stared down at the arena, only to see Kage knock Vero the Zoroark unconscious, ending the battle between the two. It looked like Kage would be up against Sylph the Charizard in his next battle, and I'll be up against Cole the Honchkrow, still a bit unsure of how exactly I was going to counter his speed and flight. Chances are, I'm not going to have an opportunity to activate my synchronize in order to cancel out his flight like I did in my first battle, so I just need to find a way to counter it altogether. That rose a question in my head though.**

 _How exactly can I do that..?_

My thinking was cut short when I saw the Zoroark get carried to the infirmary, and then I heard an announcement.

"Okay! Now that we're moving to the semi-final round, we will change the arena once more, but this time, we'll keep it the same when going into the final round, so the rest of the applicants' tournament will be battled here!" The Bisharp announced, and I turned my eyes to the turning blocks of the arena.

At first, I couldn't tell what was on the other side of the turning blocks, but as they continued to finish their transformation, I realized how exactly we'd be battling for these last two rounds.

The arena was dyed a deep brown, with a light shade of red. The floor of the arena was made of solid rock, and there were also small and large rocks alike being placed all over the arena, but these rocks were of gray color, not the same as the floor. The arena had become something like a mountainous region, and we will be battling on an extremely hard and solid ground, similar to how the arena was in the first round, but now with rocks scattered around to change things up a bit.

 _I wonder how this will affect our next battles…_ I wondered.

"Now, can I have the contestants for the next battle come to the prep rooms?" The Bisharp announced, prompting me to stand up.

"Good luck Kuro!" I heard Naru cheerily call from behind me. "I believe in you! Go win this!"

I suppressed the raising warmth in my body and just turned my head back and gave her a smile and a nod.

"Right, thanks Naru!" I thanked her, and then walked off to the prep room.

After arriving, I placed my bag in the familiar locker and waiting for the light's color to shift. While I was waiting, I thought more about what exactly I could do against Cole, but besides one very improbable idea, I came up blank. It never really occurred to me how difficult it could be to battle fliers when you aren't one yourself.

 _I should really learn ways to counter flight… Ways that don't injure me in the process…_ I thought.

I looked up at the now green light and I tightened my teal scarf around my neck. I then walked out of the room, feeling the cool rock flooring of the arena on my paws as soon as I did. As I thought, the the floor was completely solid with no chance of cracking. I looked over to the other gray rocks scattered around the arena, only to notice again that they seemed loose, unlike the floor. Heavy, but loose nonetheless. I finally looked to the other side of the arena, seeing Cole already poised to take to the skies as soon as the battle starts. I crouched down into position, and motioned that I was ready for the battle to start right before Cole did the same.

"Okay! Then let's get started! Three! Two!"

 _I wonder how heavy those rocks really are…_

"One! Battle Begin!"

Immediately, just as I thought, Cole took to the skies, flying high above the arena, and immediately split off into multiple Honchkrows, eyeing me down. Despite the discomfort I felt at the sight, I focused on each one of them, looking for some kind of sign of which one is actually Cole. Sadly, I didn't have much time, as most of the clones started to rush me down, all of their wings glowing with a dark energy. The first one passed through me, as did the second and third. Sadly, the fourth one to attack was the real one, hitting me directly with a night slash that hurt a lot more than it should have. I briefly wondered why it was so painful, but then I thought he probably hit a sensitive part of my body or something, remembering his ability, it was a probable possibility. However, after I got hit, I came to a realization. When being approached, the fake versions of Cole feel a lot different from the real one. The fake ones almost feel like a breeze on a warm day while approaching you, it was a strange feeling to be sure, but it gave me some insight as to how to dodge his attacks in the future. I looked at Cole flying high in the sky, seemingly figuring out how to attack me next. I couldn't really do much while he was up there, if I launched any projectile that I had, it would be very easily dodgeable, so I didn't see much point. After some time of him circling me passed, he flew at me extremely quickly, an aerial ace ready to send me flying. Soon after though, I was struck with a possibility.

One that would end the battle with one well timed attack.

Cole was still quickly approaching, not stopping for anything. I crouched down close to the ground, making my tail glow a bright white. I began to back up a bit, getting as close to the edge of the arena as I could before Cole made contact. He was only a few feet away, and closing in fast. As soon as he was about to strike me, I jumped in the air and adjusted my position while jumping, rolling around so my body was faced away from Cole and towards the wall. I was extremely close to Cole, so I decided it was my time to strike. I shot out a dark pulse towards the wall to propel me back slightly, sending me almost directly above Cole. My first instinct in this situation was to slam Cole to the rocky ground, but I was able to do one better than that. I slammed my tail on Cole's glowing beak, enough to change his course, while also further increasing his velocity, making him lose control. He managed to stop himself inches before the wall, but it was too late, as I had already prepared a dark pulse to finish the battle. I hit Cole in the back, pushing him into the wooden wall.

"And the battle is over! The winner is Kuro the Umbreon, heading to the finals!" The Bisharp announced.

The crowd was screaming with excitement, seemingly looking forward to whatever the rest of the tournament had in store, even know over ninety percent of them had lost in said tournament. I couldn't help but smile slightly as the crowd cheered, filling me with a large amount of joy.

 _Didn't think I'd make it as far as the finals…_ I thought.

With that, I turned to the prep room, grabbed my brown bag, and then headed back up to the stands.

I was greeted by a very happy Naru, excited that I was in the finals. While I was happy about the development, I don't think my glee reached Naru's as she could barely stand still.

"Who do you think you'll be up against in the final battle?" She asked me as Kage and Sylph entered the rocky arena in front of us.

"I'm not sure, I know that both Kage and Sylph are are strong pokemon, so I don't think I can predict the end of the battle before something big happens, like one of them getting in a disabling hit." I responded.

"I kind of feel the same way, but Kage does have the type advantage. Then again… There have been a lot of victors today that were at a disadvantage." Naru stated.

"That's true, but the type advantage still puts Kage in favor, at least, at the beginning."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see…" I told Naru, watching as Kage launched multiple bolts of electricity, only for them to be dodged by Sylph.

 _I think that Kage's most worrying ability is his range of attack. He can do a lot of damage when he gets in close, but can also land plenty of strong hits at range. I think his physical hits are more dangerous, but the ranged ones definitely hurt, and they added up quickly._

I scavenged my thoughts for ways I may be able to beat him, as I was almost certain he would be my final opponent. He has been running in circles around Sylph, not even giving her a chance to land a solid hit. I tried my absolute hardest to find a weakness, or even one part of his battling style that was not as strong as another, but I found nothing. It was like he didn't even have a weakness, like every type of attack or defensive maneuver was perfected to the point of no openings. Even against a flying opponent like Sylph, he showed no signs of slowing down, no signs of weakness. The closest thing I saw to him getting caught off guard was when Naru used her ability and also when she blinded him, but other than that, nothing has even shaken him.

My thoughts were cut short after I saw Kage directly connect a thunderbolt to the chest of Sylph, causing her to plummet to the ground without her consciousness. Kage was announced as the winner, and I watched as Sylph was being carried to the infirmary. Kage was barely hurt, only being hit with a few stray flames that were launched by Sylph. After he was quickly healed, he didn't even move from the arena, as he knew he was about to have to battle again anyway, and the arena was keeping its solid rock environment and wasn't going to be changing for the final.

"Okay everyone! It's finally time for the final battle!" The Bisharp announced, prompting a loud cheer. "Can I have the other contestant for the finals come to the prep room please? You should be able to go straight into the arena without waiting if you don't need to prep." He finished.

I took in a large breath and got up from my seat. I felt my anxiety quickly rise, and I began to believe that I may not be ready for this battle. It was then when Naru stood and turned to me.

"Good luck Kuro! Show our recruiters why you should be a Raven!" Naru encouraged, prompting a familiar warm and admittedly pleasant feeling inside of me again. I honestly didn't fully know what this emotion was, but I knew that Naru seemed to get it out of me with little to no effort.

I gave her a smile, then nodded my head firmly. I moved my legs to the prep room, only to put my bag in the familiar locker. I then immediately walked out of the door and into the arena, thinking that waiting would only worsen my anxiety. I set my paws onto the rocky arena, and looked across to see Kage, looking at me with a curious gaze.

"Now here are our finalists! Kuro the Umbreon and Kage the Luxray! Are both contestants ready?" The Bisharp asked, and I could tell he had some excitement in his voice. I nodded my head in sync with Kage, and we were both crouched down, ready to battle.

"Okay, then let's get started! Three!"

I took in a deep breath, readying myself to react to anything.

"Two!"

I steadied the shaking in my paws and legs, only focusing on the Luxray across from me.

"One!"

I was ready to give it my all.

"Battle Begin!"

Immediately, Kage dashed to the center of the arena, and shot off a discharge of electricity in multiple directions. I quickly found a spot that the electricity wouldn't make contact with and dodged between the bolts. Sadly, this was exactly what Kage wanted me to do, and he focused a thunderbolt on the spot that I dodged towards. It made contact, instantly lighting my body up with a painful heat and shock that quickly spread. I shook off the attack as best as I could and began to get within close range with Kage. Although I knew his close attacks were more dangerous, I was sadly the same way, and I relied a lot more on my close range combat as opposed to farther range. If I was going to land any decent hits, I would need to battle risky, and a bit stupidly. Kage had an electric charge in his maw, ready to clamp it down on me whenever he could. As soon as I knew I was close enough for him to do so, I waited for him to make his move. We were within inches of each other, waiting for a proper opportunity to make a move. I saw Kage slightly tense, and then he lunged at me, admittedly quicker than I expected. I barely avoided his thunder fang, and as Kage was trying to recover from his miss, I sunk my fangs into his back. He let out a small groan in pain before I felt electricity build up in his fur, prompting me to let go before I took irreversible damage. I shot off a dark pulse at Kage, but it was easily dodged by him, and he began to charge a large amount of electricity in his fur. There was an abnormally large charge, to the point where making contact would be a bad idea.

 _As long as he charges his fur like that… I can't make contact without paralyzing myself. I can't use my claws or fangs anymore…_

I thought about the different ways I could hit Kage without making contact, and I did have plenty of options, but he was hindering my abilities to attack him, meaning he was trying to put himself at an advantage. Not to mention, when he did actually launch off that electricity, it was going to be intense. However, after I thought about Kage's plan, I realized something.

 _He can't use any electric attacks without releasing his charge..._

He must have realized that he was better at close range, because without his electricity, he can't do anything at range. As if to confirm my thoughts, Kage rushed at me, baring his claws. He took a few swipes at me very quickly, and I did manage to dodge the first few, but them he got two deep slashes into the side of my body. I winced at the pain of the claws cutting through my fur and skin, but I didn't let it get to me and shot a shadow ball directly at Kage, hitting him in the face. Kage flew back, skidding across the ground. Before he could regain his balance, I launched a dark pulse at him. He was able to recover and dodge the dark pulse, but not without tripping himself up a little bit. Seeing this, I jumped a bit closer to him and shot another dark pulse at him, connecting with the side of his body. He grunted in pain, but managed to stand his ground, and began to rush me again. Before he could get to me, I shot off a small flurry of shadow balls at him. He saw my pattern of attacks however, and strafed in between the attacks, then headbutting me into the air. I found myself unable to prevent Kage from slamming me into the ground with an iron tail. As soon as my body made contact with the rocky ground, I felt the wind get completely knocked out of me. I also felt the extreme ache that then found its way through my body. I took in a few deep breaths quickly, and then stood on my paws once more. I saw Kage pushing towards me again, although not quite as fast, he was still at a large advantage.

 _He knows how to dodge my projectiles now… How can I stop him?_

My mind went to one last possibility that may stop Kage's rush, something that might be able to give me an upper hand. I bolted to a part of the arena that was somewhat close to the edge, and Kage turned his path to intercept me. Once I got to the point I wanted, I encased my tail with a light glow, and waited for Kage to get closer. Once he was within range, I smashed my tail into a large rock beside me, causing many small pieces of it flying at Kage. A few of them made contact, but didn't really do any damage. However, I didn't need it to do damage, as I had already pushed right next to Kage, and hit him with a dark pulse at point blank range. He flew back a few feet, his unsheathed claws digging into the rock ground below us. Once he properly recovered, he started to rush at me again, still running slower than his initial speed. I tried to dodge out of the way, but as soon as he got close to me, he jumped into the air, preparing an iron tail. I was ready to dodge it and counter, but then he did something that I wasn't expecting, even know I probably should have. He slammed his tail into the rocky ground, kicking up many small pebbles and rocks to hit me square in the face, and spread across my body. He then bit into one of my back legs, putting a lot of force into it. I had to suppress a small scream as Kage sunk his fangs deep into my leg, drawing more blood than the slashes he landed earlier. In order to get him off of me, I shot a shadow ball directly at the ground below me, kicking up more small rocks. Worried that I would follow up with an attack, Kage released my leg and jumped back. I just limped back a few feet, taking in breaths unsteadily as I did. As soon as all of the debris cleared, I saw Kage standing a decent distance away from me, also panting from near exhaustion. However, I noticed that this time, he was keeping his distance, not rushing me for a physical attack, which greatly confused me for a few moments, before I finally realized something.

 _He's trying to end this soon._

I saw Kage crouch down, all of the electricity he had built up in his fur sparking off of his body, ready to fire. Before he did however, he gave me a competitive grin.

"You...Know…" He said in between breaths. "This is… A great… Battle... I… Honestly didn't think you… Would put up this… Much of a fight…" He finished.

His remark caught me off guard, as I don't think any of the other contestants talked to one another during their battle, but it's not like it bothered me. If anything, I welcomed it, because it further proved that this wasn't a battle of malice, this wasn't hostile, this was a challenge to get accepted into the organization and become a Raven.

With that thought in mind, I returned the same grin he gave me.

"I… Agree... But… I'm not… Done yet…" I said in between breaths.

With that, our talking was over, and Kage launched an incredible amount of concentrated electricity directly at me.

In the short time it was taking for the electricity to travel to me, time seemed to slow down. I thought of a last ditch attack that, if I can get it off in the first place, might make me able to win. However the plan was risky… And pretty stupid… Thinking about it more I thought it was incredibly stupid of me to do something like this, but my adrenaline made the decision for me. With that, I crouched down quickly, and even with an injured back leg, I lept at directly at the electricity, all while building energy in my maw. I was going to put everything I had left in my body into this next hit. As soon as I made contact, I felt an extreme burning sensation spread throughout my entire body, and also intense shocking spark all around my fur and inside of me. More than half of my body was numb at this point, but I had made it about halfway through the distance of the bolt. From that place, I fired the strongest hyper beam I could build up, and it traveled straight through the bolt, overpowering it, and hit the center of Kage's body. He flew back quite a distance, and let out a small shriek of pain, as well as smashed through one of the rocks standing in the arena, but he didn't quite reach the wall. He slammed against the rocky ground of the arena, and flipped onto his stomach. I was now standing a far distance away from him, still not feeling more than half of my body. Kage then very shakily stood up on all fours, before limping down on one of his front legs. He was heavily panting, as was I, but he looked up at me and gave me the same competitive smile he had before. I returned the smile, and told myself I had to say one more thing.

"That…. Was…. Great…. But…. Sorry I…. Ended it like…. This…" I managed to quietly get out that last sentence, but I soon succumbed to my numbness and let my body hit the ground while my eyes closed.

* * *

 **Naru**

I looked down upon the arena with a look of surprise, awe, and worry on my face. I was absolutely amazed by the battle that I just watched, there wasn't one point in which I knew who would come out on top between the two of them. Even when Kuro had injuries on his back leg and Kage looked like he was about to release a massive attack, I knew Kuro had some kind of way to try and turn the tables, although the method he chose definitely caused me a lot more concern than I wish it had. I saw Kuro get carried away by an Audino to the infirmary, and Kage needed help walking out of the arena via another Audino. I don't think he needed to go to the infirmary, as he never lost consciousness, but he definitely needed to rest, he could barely stand after walking for about a minute.

I was a bit bummed out by the fact that Kuro lost, but I had very little doubt in my mind that he would be chosen to become a Raven. He demonstrated strategy, resilience, as well as amazing battling prowess overall since the beginning of this tournament, I couldn't think of a reason why they wouldn't want him, well, maybe other than his tendency to get himself hurt. If I had any more worries regarding the tournament at this point, they were all about me getting accepted. I've been trying not to think about it since my loss, but I couldn't deny that I got eliminated semi-early.

 _Hopefully I showed enough promise in two battles…._ I thought as I walked to the infirmary.

I entered the metallic door that I was beginning to become familiar with. Once I entered the room, I didn't see anyone who wasn't a familiar Umbreon sleeping in the bed in the center of the room. Dismissing the unsettling feeling in the back of my mind that I couldn't quite place, I looked over Kuro. His chest was slowly rising and lowering, suggesting that he was peacefully asleep. I saw his scarf and bag next to him on the bed, but I also noticed that Kuro fur was actually singed in some areas. I gently placed one of my paws on the burnt part of Kuro's fur. Despite being like that, it was still very soft. Kage's lightning strike at the end must have been hotter than I could comprehend, as Kuro got lit on fire without his fur being singed afterwards thanks to the healing from the Audino, but if this couldn't be healed the same way, then the blast of electricity that Kuro was hit with must have been a lot stronger than I initially thought. I found myself slowly bringing my paw down Kuro's body, feeling his extremely soft fur. I began to stroke my paw up and down Kuro's back, until I saw him start to stir in his sleep.

I very quickly drew my paw back with a blush quite evident on my face, and waited for Kuro to open his eyes. As soon as he did, I could see the pure exhaustion in them. His eyelids were still hanging low, despite him waking up. He lifted his body up very slowly in the bed, but I could tell it was hurting him when he almost immediately fell back down. He let out a slight groan in frustration, which made me suppress a small chuckle.

"Welcome back Kuro." I told him. "That battle was amazing! You and Kage both held your grounds, not budging an inch for who knows how long, and even then, you both went back in forth so quickly that the entire thing had me on edge!" I exclaimed to him.

He looked at me with a gaze of minor surprise, and then gave me a slightly embarrassed smile.

"It certainly was exhilarating, although, I can't say I got out of it unscathed." He said, looking down at his burnt fur. "I didn't think these burns would last, but I guess I misjudged how much damage that I took." He then put down his paws and looked at me. "When are they announcing who got picked for the organization?"

"Oh! Right! They're going to take some time to talk it over and then put it on a screen in the room we were in when they put up the tournament bracket." I told him. "I wouldn't worry about you getting accepted, you put on an amazing performance, even in a match you didn't win, you showed a lot of skill!" I exclaimed to him.

Kuro smiled awkwardly while his ears twitched and he averted his eyes. I could tell I was embarrassing him with my praise, and I would stop… But I found it endlessly entertaining, especially when I noticed a slight habit he has when he gets embarrassed.

 _Also… slightly adorable._

"I don't think it was that amazing, I just went up against pokemon that I was close to in skill, making for good matches to watch." He tried to dismiss my praise. "Back to the topic of getting accepted, I think you'll definitely get in, even if you lost early on, you showed a lot of creative ways to battle, and winning against an opponent with a type advantage doesn't hurt your case at all. Also… The one you lost to also won the whole tournament, and I would think that gets taken into consideration as well." Kuro encouraged me, and gave me a smile.

I found myself at a loss. I hadn't even told Kuro about the worry that I might not get accepted, and yet here he is, assuring me that I will. It was like he knew. He knew that the one worry that I had about this was getting accepted. He somehow knew this, and he acted on it before I can even tell him that I was worried. Knowing this, I smiled at him warmly.

"Thanks Kuro! You just really eased my mind. To be honest, that has been bothering me since my lost battle, but now, I feel a lot more confident!" I exclaimed to him.

"Yeah, I could kind of tell that something was bothering you, but I didn't know what exactly until I thought about it more." He told me, with a smile on his face. "And just so you know, I meant every word I said, I honestly think you are going to be accepted, you demonstrated something that I didn't see anyone else do. You showed creative battling, and I think that's something that this place is looking for." Kuro finished, attempting to get up again.

I noticed he was struggling to keep his body upwards, so I pressed a paw to his back, helping him up. I felt his soft fur again, instantly reminding me of what I was doing while he was asleep, and I immediately turned my thoughts away from it before my face changed color. I kept holding a paw to his back, making sure that he didn't collapse on himself.

"Thank you for helping me… I feel like I won't be able to walk for a while…" Kuro told me with slight dismay in his voice. "The electric attacks from Kage really did a lot more to me than I expected them to…"

"Well, jumping into a super-charged final attack from him probably didn't help… You really seem to have a tendency to hurt yourself in battles…" I told Kuro with a concerned look. "You should probably think your actions in battle through a little more if it gets you this hurt."

"Yeah… I get these strange ideas while I'm battling to do something incredibly stupid and risky, and I need to learn to not listen to these thoughts… Otherwise I'll just keep getting myself hurt." Kuro said with a slight sigh.

We let some time pass in silence, my paw still pressed to Kuro's back, which he didn't entirely seem to need anymore, but I really didn't want to remove my paw from his fur, and he didn't seem to be complaining, so I didn't see a reason to stop. After some more time had passed, the Audino that had carried Kuro to the infirmary came in with a small screen. The screen was just a small metal border with a black glass in the center. It reminded me of what certain doctors used when they examined patients, and I hoped this pokemon wasn't here just to tell us that Kuro is permanently injured or something...

"Hello, Kuro." The Audino calmly said. "Because of your injuries, we thought it would be better if we brought you the results of who got accepted, as opposed to you standing in a crowded room when you have trouble even sitting up." The Audino explained, handing me the screen.

It had a rectangular shape, sporting a blue outline around its metallic body. There was already a list on the screen, but it hadn't displayed any names yet, meaning they probably haven't shown anyone the members yet. I passed the screen to Kuro and he looked at with the same expression I had, observing the soon to be acceptance list. I took a deep breath, ready to accept any results that come out of the list.

Soon after, the screen lit up, showing me a numbered, ranked list, showing who got in and who didn't. I didn't know what to think, my anxiety was bubbling up, I dismissed it and looked at the list with Kuro.

Kage/Luxray

Kuro/Umbreon

Cole/Honchkrow

J/Frogadier

Naru/Glaceon

Sylph/Charizard

Lucas/Gabite

Eric/Electrode

Mace/Metang

Vero/Zoroark

Scythe/Scizor

Force/Dusknoir

Mara/Seiviper

Shell/Shuckle

Aria/Altaria

Blitz/Manectric

I looked at this list with amaze. I didn't even recognize a bunch of the pokemon, and I didn't know we were also getting ranked, but I didn't care about that at the moment. What I was really focused on, was that I was actually picked, and ranked fifth no less! I had an unexplainable amount of excitement coursing through my veins, and I could barley contain a shriek. I almost moved my paw from Kuro's back to cover my mouth, but I remembered that I was helping him sit up before that happened.

Kuro looked very surprised at the list as well, although he said he knew I would make it, it looks like he didn't think he was going to make second. But after he got over his surprise, he looked at me and smiled, to which I quickly returned.

"See Naru? I told you, the ones who picked the members were amazed with you, even if you lost early on. You just needed some confidence." He told me, keeping his smile.

I gave him a firm nod and tried my best to calm down my excitement, I didn't want to accidently break Kuro's back. I took in a few deep breaths and contained myself.

Kuro and I were going to be Ravens.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Me from the future again, announcing that I have indeed made some minor edits to this chapter, mainly trying to describe action scenes a bit better, as they're something I'm still not really used to writing. Hopefully it came out okay!

See you in nine chapters!


	7. Finally breaking the mould

**Kuro**

I tried to sit up again, but to no avail. Every time that I tried to raise my body, I couldn't hold it without Naru supporting me. I was grateful that she was here to help me, or else I would most certainly still be laying on my back, unable to sit up properly. Feeling the constant shocking throughout my body every time I moved was very unpleasant, but feeling Naru's paw on my back lightened my negative feelings and replaced them with a warmer one. I decided to not think about these feelings, as I didn't want them to spread to my face and become evident to the Glaceon sitting next to me.

The shocking in my body was steadily decreasing, making it easier to move around and keep myself up without help. I felt the burning that went along with the shocks fade away at the same time, and soon after, I was able to walk. I stood on my paws, feeling immensely sore, but I was able to stay standing. I needed Naru to help support me at first when I tried to walk around the infirmary, but soon enough, I was able to walk properly again. All of this took a few hours, but once it was done, I was feeling quite a bit better than I did right after my battle.

While I was resting, there was a knock at the infirmary door, and soon after, an Audino entered the infirmary.

"Ah, good to see you're awake." The Audino started. "Congratulations on being accepted as Ravens! Both of you! However, every other accepted member has already left to go to our main base of operations. Because you were injured so badly, we decided that it would be better if you waited to go separately as opposed to being on a crowded aircraft while you could barely move." The Audino explained.

 _That makes sense… But… Did I hear aircraft?_

"We need to take an aircraft to go there?" Naru asked quickly afterwards.

"Yes. It is quite a distance away from Myriad, and we need to keep it hidden, so what better place than in the middle of nowhere miles upon miles away?" The Audino explained before directing us out of the room. "Follow me, I'll take you to the aircraft, and then you'll see your new home for the first time, neither of you have a problem with abandoning your current living areas, do you?" Naru and I shook our heads almost instantly. This took the Audino off guard, but they led us out of the infirmary anyway. I was intrigued at the mention of an aircraft though. My parents had both told me about them in the past, apparently, they also used them multiple times and told me, in detail, what they were like. All of the stories were positive ones, so I had somewhat high hopes, and a slight bit of excitement.

We walked up another staircase in the gargantuan building that we didn't notice before, the stairs had the familiar red carpeting that made up almost the entirety of the building. The carpet was soft, and it gave a pleasant feeling to the touch. After we finished climbing, there was a small hatch and a ladder that led to the roof. The Audino opened the hatch, and we all climbed up the ladder one after another, which was a bit awkward, being a quadruped, but if I could write, I could do this. Once we were at the top, we arrived at a large pad that had a bright white coloring. There was a dark black circle rounding the middle of the pad, and there were bright lights flickering from red to green, which I assumed to be signaling a landing.

As if to confirm my suspicions, I looked upward to see a giant, almost rectangular metal vehicle hovering above the three of us, slowly lowering itself to the ground. Naru and I took a step back, not really knowing how to react to the lowering aircraft in front of us. It very slowly landed on the pad-like floor in front of us, and a small door on the side of it began to open. Once it was fully open, the Audino stepped inside, and waved at us, prompting us to follow. Instead of immediately following, I looked at the structure in awe for a second. It was massive, a lot larger than what I thought based on previous descriptions. The metal of the vehicle had a dark purple, almost violet coloring to it. In fact, it looked as if it had originally been lighter, but the color had been worn down over a long time. Once I left my small state of shock, Nau and I both followed the Audino into the beast.

The interior of the aircraft sported a deep violet color, similar to the outside, and it was lined with red cushioned seats that had black stripes splitting the red coloring in half. Other than the seats, almost the entirety of the aircraft's interior sported the same violet coloring, making up a row of seats leading to a closed opaque door, which I assumed to be the location of the one controlling the aircraft. The Audino motioned for us to sit down in two of the seats we were standing in front of. I sat down in one of them and Naru sat next to me. The Audino then took a seat across from us, and then gave us a look that I couldn't quite place. It was almost like we were being observed.

"Now, before we get to where we need to be, I need to know something of both of you." The Audino asked with authority. "You will be trusted with a lot of information when you get to our base of operations. You absolutely have to swear to secrecy regarding all of this information and we will have to advise psychics to read your thoughts and make sure that you are not conspiring against us. Do you agree to both of these terms?" The Audino finished asking.

I was fine with both of these requirements, secrecy was a given, but having my mind read was a bit unnerving… However not enough to stop me from nodding my head in confirmation to the Audino in synchronization with Naru.

"Good. Now I would like to ask you something else, have either of you had any past experiences with any pokemon that may have had a strange symbol on a part of their body? Something that looks like a dark spiral and a hand?" The Audino asked.

My mind instantly shot to the Gallade that attacked Naru. That Gallade clearly had a branding of some kind that matched the description that was given to us by the Audino, but that wasn't the only pokemon that instantly shot into my head.

 _Those three…_

"There was this Gallade that tried to attack me just yesterday… He has a symbol like that near his chest." Naru told the Audino.

"Ah… So you have had experience with them… What about you, Umbreon?" The Audino then turned to me.

"I was with Naru when that Gallade attacked her, but other than that, no experience with them." I answered, prompting a very confused look from Naru.

I gave her a look telling her that I would explain later.

The Audino then nodded and began speaking once more.

"Well, that's all I needed to know, this is a fairly long trip, and since it's the middle of the night, I suggest that you two get some sleep. Tomorrow, you will start your lives as Ravens, be ready for it." The Audino then went towards the opaque door, entering the room presumably with the pilot, and Naru and I were left alone.

Just as I expected, Naru immediately turned to me, and gave me another confused look.

"Why didn't you tell them about Kai and the other two? Couldn't the Ravens help find them?" She asked, almost sounding concerned.

She definitely had a point, I mean, why wouldn't I want to take the opportunity to get a helping paw in my search of these three? Had I just joined without the applicants' tournament, I probably would have. However, I didn't want to take an unneeded risk.

"I really wanted to say something, but I don't think that's the best idea right now." I told her. "We already saw that Kai is a Raven… A very respected one at that, if I just went and accused him as a killer… I'm not sure how well that would be received." I explained, feeling a bit frustrated. "Anyway, I need to try and sleep… I don't want to be tired for whatever we have to do when we arrive."

"Yeah, I should sleep as well. We need to make a good first impression!" Naru said with a cheerful tone, prompting me to smile.

I then relaxed my thoughts, and fell into a peaceful slumber.

* * *

 **Naru**

 _I have soooo much to think about right now…._

My thoughts were pretty diverse over the events of today, not only did I get accepted to become a Raven, but I also now have a better idea of what I'll be doing in the future. I'm finally breaking out of the cycle I had myself stuck in for so many years, and I couldn't be happier to finally be out of it.

I let out a slight sigh, wondering if I'd actually be able to fall asleep. I had way too many thoughts in my head to silence myself into slumber, but I at least had to give it an attempt.

But just as I was, I felt something soft brush up against the side of my neck.

I slightly tilted my head to see Kuro, sleeping soundly. He had been asleep for quite a while now, as he was able to fall asleep as soon as he said he would. I have no idea how because I'm pretty sure he has even more to think about than I do at this point, but I just accepted that he was able to sleep peacefully whenever he wanted… He also seemed like a very heavy sleeper. I looked at his sleeping figure and smiled. I thought back to a day ago… When in my own haste I accidentally rammed into Kuro head-first, knocking us both aside. I remembered expecting to be yelled at, maybe even beat up on the spot, but he just said it wasn't a problem and went on about his business. I realized that if he wasn't there, I probably wouldn't be on this flying vehicle right now, I wouldn't be a Raven. I would most likely still be in my home, waiting for the next day to come and go, with nothing significant ever happening.

I felt Kuro slowly raise and lower, his fur creating a soft feeling against my neck. I thought it was a bit strange how small Kuro was, he was definitely quite a bit below average size for an Umbreon his age, which was very uncommon. I assumed it was genetics, but it didn't bother me in any way. It's not like he's weaker than any other Umbreon due to his size, so it didn't really matter. I thought it was something that made him unique, and something that I found just a little bit adorable.

 _To think I've only known him for under two days..._

I felt heat rush up to my face as I kept my thoughts going in the direction of Kuro, but I didn't throw them away like I usually did. I had no reason to try and hide them, as I was alone beside a sleeping Kuro. Instead, I let my thoughts relax, but didn't change their course.

I then fell asleep to his rhythmic breathing.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I felt myself waking up from a very peaceful slumber, but I noticed that my head was cold. It was strange since the vehicle that we were in was heated, so being cold wasn't expected.

As soon as I tried to turn my head, I noticed the source.

My head was resting on Naru's shoulder, and her head was leaning on mine. I felt the cold radiating from her body, not enough to be a bother, but enough for me to notice.

Then again, this was all cancelled out by the heat building up in my face.

I took a small breath and very carefully moved my head out from Naru's and I set her into a more comfortable position. I then sat up in my seat and tried not to focus on the position in which I just woke up. I looked out of the window that I was sitting next to, only to see nothing but blue sky. I didn't even see any clouds, there was nothing but blue, empty space. I observed the sight for a bit, just letting my thoughts wander, not knowing what should be on my mind. I managed to force myself to sleep, but now that I was awake, my flooded mind began to return to me. I thought about my decision to keep the information about Kai to myself, wondering if it really was the right thing to do. I also started to think about how much my life had changed the second I actually decided to leave my home, but I quickly tossed those thoughts aside, not wanting to think about the past that I recently left behind.

I sighed deeply, relaxing my body while I waited for Naru and I to get to our destination. I'd get answers there, sitting here getting a headache over them wasn't going to help anyone.

Soon after, I saw Naru begin to stir.

She opened her eyes and yawned, before looking at me and lightly smiling.

"Morning Kuro!" She greeted me, before looking past me and out the window. "Wow… I can't see anything but the sky here… No clouds or anything…" She said.

"I think it's because we're far away from most civilization, at least, we have to be after flying for who knows how long." I responded, also turning my head back to the window.

However, I saw more than the sky this time.

I looked towards the ground, and I saw a truly extravagant sight. There was a monumental building, sporting a deep violet color, similar to the walls in the building we signed up to be Ravens in. The roof of each section of the building was rounded, sporting a flat top with a violet symbol on the top of each rounded area. The symbol was purely white, it was made up with a large star, each point filled with more pure white coloring, making a nice contrast to the violet roof below it. In the center of the star, there was a talon, sharing the same white coloring. The symbol looked beautiful, but the environment around the building captivated me even more. As we got lower, I was able to make out more of the area, which was surrounded by well-kept trees, as well as gorgeous flowers of all colors. From red to blue to orange, even ones of pure black. These flowers were not only at the outskirts of the building, but also scattered around the fields which also surrounded the building. They were plain, dirt fields, and they were quite large in number. The entire area was absolutely breathtaking, and also, because of all of the nature surrounding it, reminded me of my home, back when my parents were still alive. The environment gave me a mindset of peace and tranquility.

Wondering what I was so enticed by, Naru leaned over my shoulder and looked out of the window.

"Wow… Is that where we're headed?" Naru asked.

"Looks like it… It's beautiful." I responded.

While Naru and I were staring at the area in awe, neither of us realized how close we were actually getting to the ground. Soon after, we felt a slight slump in movement, and then we had stopped moving altogether. The sudden stop after the little hiccup caused us to bump our heads together, but neither of us flinched at the sudden contact. After all, we met in the same way, just a lot harder. Out the window, I saw a long strip of land, nothing was significant about it, there was just a long strip of dirt surrounded by more bright green grass.

We had arrived at our destination.

The door that held our presumed pilot and the Audino opened swiftly, and the Audino walked out.

"We've arrived at our destination. Please step out and I will guide you to your next designated areas." The Audino said. Both Naru and I stood up, a bit sore from the long flight, as well as my exhaustion from yesterday, and then followed the Audino.

She brought us to the exit of the vehicle and the three of us walked onto the dirt path, leading to what would most likely be our new home. The dirt felt very coarse on my paws, but that was probably because I had just spent who knows how long sitting down in a very comfortable location. I also looked up at the sky and noticed that it was already past mid day, meaning we really were on that vehicle for almost a full day.

 _This area really is far out there… I wonder what kind of other places are nearby..._

I didn't really know what to expect from a place like this. I originally lived in a very small area that had nothing but a forest that, over the years I was alone, I learned like the back of my paw. I knew for a fact that there wasn't really anything there besides the nature that surrounded me. Then I went to Myriad, which held a lot of interesting things. From homes, to stores, to other miscellaneous buildings. It was so much different from where I lived for the entirety of my life. Based on that change, I had no idea what this building or the surrounding area would contain.

 _Guess I'll find out soon enough._

After we were getting rather close to the building, the Audino turned their head towards us and began to speak.

"When you two get inside, I will bring you to the leader of the Ravens where you will learn more about your life here. All of the other new recruits have already heard this, so I'd assume that you won't be running into any of them until you start your usual routine here. If you have any questions, they will be answered by our leader within reason when you see her." The Audino explained, getting a nod from both Naru and myself.

Soon after, we were standing inches away from the front door to this grand structure. The door was a deep blue, not quite like the purple and violet colors of most other parts of the Ravens' designs. The door shared the same symbol that I saw plastered on the very top of the rounded part of the building's rooftops.

The Audino slowly opened the door, making Naru and I both almost gasp in surprise.

We were looking at the main lobby of the building. It had a combination of the three previous colors, all separated into thirds by thin white lines along the floor. The walls had the same complexion, and up against the walls were many potted plants of different types. I recognized many of said plants, as a lot of them grew in the forest that I used to call home.

 _Some of those are poisonous…. I hope whoever put those there knows that…._

I took my thoughts away from the poison flowers around the walls and the looked upwards. There were many balconies, all of which had many doors on them. The balconies were made of wood, and the doors had the same coloring as the front door, just not quite as large, and they also did not include the symbol. The roof was also made up of wood, and also had more potted plants hanging from the ceiling, like the walls, some of which were poisonous.

The entire lobby looked grand and amazing, and both Naru and I were extremely captivated. We almost didn't notice the Audino almost leaving us behind. We quickly caught up to the Audino, who led us to a violet carpeted staircase. We headed up said staircase, and it led to a door that, unlike the ones on the balcony, looked exactly like the entrance to the building. The Audino knocked a certain pattern on the door, it took them about a full minute to knock it, and then a different pattern was knocked back, but it sounded as if it was coming from a distance, and not the door itself. The Audino then opened the door and stepped aside, motioning for us to enter. Naru and I hesitated a bit, but after a second, we both slowly entered the room.

It looked like an office of sorts, sporting the same violet coloring as a lot of the previous locations we've been to. There were a few chairs in front of a desk of sorts in the center of the room. The ceiling had the same coloring, but also had a small chandelier, which had a nice golden coloring, as well as lights hanging off of it on all sides. The chandelier was also surrounded by many other ornaments hanging from the ceiling. The ornaments had indescribable shapes, but there were six of them, and they looked like they shared some significance, as to what kind exactly, I had no idea. Overall the room seemed like a very well put together office, but that wasn't what I should have been focused on.

I was focused on the Greninja sitting behind the desk, wearing an anticipating smile.

This Greninja didn't look like every other one though, their skin, instead of the normal dark blue, was a pure black. Before I could observe the area we were in any more, the Greninja bowed their head towards us and began to speak.

""I would like to welcome both of you Ravens to my organization. My name is Myra, and I am the owner of this place, as well as the one who dictates what the Ravens do. Before I start to explain in detail what exactly you'll be doing here, do either of you have any questions?" Myra asked.

I didn't have anything in particular to ask, as I knew anything I want to know was about to be explained to me. I shook my head to indicate that I didn't have anything to ask. Our leader's head then turned to Naru, and she hesitated a bit, as if considering a question but not knowing if it should be asked or not.

After those few seconds of hesitation, she finally opened her mouth to speak.

"Then, if you don't mind me asking, you have a reason behind everyone you picked to become a Raven, right?" Naru started, and I realized where she was going with this. "Why exactly did you pick me to join? I thought there were a lot of other pokemon who were more qualified."

"Of course I have a reason behind every pick. If I didn't then I wouldn't exactly be qualified for this position. You demonstrated something that I saw almost nobody else show. Everyone who did show it got picked, by the way." Myra paused for a second before continuing. "Creativity. You showed that you can use your abilities in more than one way in order to put you into an advantageous position. For example, using your opponent's attack to blind them with one of your ice shards. That was a work of creativity and genius. Trust me when I say I don't have any regrets about picking you." Myra finished.

The last statement seemed to catch Naru off guard and make her a bit flustered. In the end she composed herself and looked back at Myra.

"T-Thank you! I won't disappoint!" She managed to get out. The whole situation made me release a small smile.

Myra then gave Naru a nod and turned back to me.

"Your name is Kuro, isn't it? I have a question for you. If you don't want to answer you're not inclined to." She then turned her face into a slightly more serious expression. "Are your parents' names Storm and Blade?" Myra asked, making me flinch initially, and then my eyes widened, and I wasn't sure what to think. However, once I rested my thoughts and remembered something I figured out while I was sleeping at Naru's home, I calmed down.

 _I really shouldn't be surprised…_

"Yes, my Mom's name is Storm and my Dad's name is Blade. Why do you ask?" I responded, hiding my still uneasy feelings. I really hoped I didn't make them visible on my face, but I couldn't tell if I succeeded, or failed miserably.

"Your parents' are retired Ravens, didn't you know? Both of them were exceptional in battle, and showed a lot of talent in other areas of need. They always talked about you after their retirement, next time you go home you should bring it up with them." After Myra stopped talking, I froze. Not at the revelation that my parents were Ravens in the past, I should have been expecting that from the start. Something else she said made my skin crawl.

' _You should bring it up with them next time you go home'_

 _She doesn't know._

I very quickly gathered my surprise and unease and nodded my head. I really didn't want to have a breakdown in front of who was going to be my boss from this day forward, so I bottled up my emotions further.

"I'll make sure I do." I responded, and instantly I got a look from Naru. It was a very concerned look, as if she was worried I would break down and lose myself upon the continuation of this subject.

 _She may not be completely wrong._

Luckily, the talk quickly changed subjects after I responded to Myra.

"Now there are a few things you should know about your new life here as Ravens. First thing you should know is the new system we have in place for members taking on missions. Originally, we had multiple members sign up for a specific task and then the task was set to be departed for at a certain time, which is when these pokemon would leave to complete the task. Now, or new system is a partnership system, and this is also the reason we started to accept sixteen members instead of fifteen, we needed an even number. Now, everyone is going to have a partner, and that is the person you will be completing missions with, sharing a room with, sharing rewards with, basically sharing every aspect of your life here with them. Because you two couldn't get here until after everyone else, that means that you will be partners, as everyone else has already arranged themselves with another. Are you okay with this?"

Naru and I nodded our heads in unison.

"That's good, because even if you weren't okay with it, I'd have to stick you with each other anyway." Myra lightly chuckled to herself before continuing. "Anyway, your first day here will be a bit uneventful, you mostly just need to listen to me talk and prepare yourselves for the days to come soon in the future. After today, you will start your routine as new members. At first, this routine will consist of training with a current member for some time in the morning, and then your team will go on a mission that will be listed on a board in the main lobby. Since you're new members, you'll mostly just have small delivery missions or escort missions. Once you've spent more time here and had more training, then you will have more advanced missions such as taking out members of our opposing organization, or maybe spying on them. However, you need to be here for quite a while before you start accepting those kinds of tasks. When you're not doing a task off of the board, you'll most likely be doing a task that was directly asked of you by either me, or one of the other leaders of this place. They'll introduce themselves as leaders when you meet them so you'll know who they are. Even know this is our schedule, we are flexible if the need arises. Finally, you two have room fifty-eight, they key to the room will be hanging on next to the door. That is all you need to know for now, tomorrow morning, go to any of the dirt fields used for practice right outside of the building, you will find the member designated to training you there. Other than that, make sure to enjoy your lives here as Ravens. Don't make me think I made the wrong choice." Myra finished with a smile.

Once more, Naru and I nodded our heads in unison and then started to depart from Myra's office.

"Wait, one more thing!" Myra stopped us. "This place, our base of operations, is known as the Nest, there's one more thing I'll need to do with you two, but it can wait until you're with everyone else." She told us, before departing herself.

 _The Nest…_

Now knowing the name of our organization, Naru and I left the office to wander the Nest, looking for our room.

* * *

 **Naru**

Kuro and I walked around the Nest for a very long time, looking for our room. It was nice and all that our room was already set to us, and that we had a room in the first place, but not knowing where it is caused us a lot of extra searching.

 _I reeeeaaallllyyy should have asked where our room was before we left…._

After much time of walking around, in and outside of the Nest, we found ourselves on a very nice-looking balcony. The bars on the end of it were made up of purple-painted wood, which was the same color shared with the floor. The Balcony was very long, and a large amount of doors were on the wall opposite to the bars. We were also at the edge of the Nest, so looking past the balcony resulted in a peaceful view of endless green grass. Each room had a number, but I swear we had found almost every number before and after fifty-eight, and they did not seem to be in a pattern of any sort. There were just a lot of rooms, each of which having a number, not in order at all. There wasn't even a separate section for new members compared to veterans, it all seemed completely random.

After walking further down the balcony, we looked at the tenth door down, and we had found our happiness.

"Finally, room fifty-eight…" Kuro slowly said, sounding a bit tired from the multiple hours of walking.

I looked to the left of the door to see the key, hanging from a small wooden claw. I swiftly picked it up, realizing that it was shaped more like a card than a traditional key. Despite looking like a card, it still had a small outward portion of it that was able to fit into the keyhole of the door. Without hesitating, I inserted the key into the door, and unlocked it. As soon as the door opened, Kuro and I were both stunned for a short while.

The room had the same violet coloring as the rest of the Nest, but it seemed different. The color was shining brightly, unlike the rest of the building. The floor and the ceilings had a bright white pattern with black stripes lining the white carpeting. There were two straw beds on either side of the room, each one with a small table adjacent to them for belongings. The entire room just looked beautiful.

 _I don't mind this becoming my new home in the slightest…_

I saw that Kuro had the same look of awe on his face that I had, making me smile slightly. He seemed to look at a lot of simple things in awe because he isn't used to them, but this time it was more than justified. I walked over to one of the beds and placed my scarf down on the small table next to it. I also put down my bag and thought about our arrival to the Nest. However, there really wasn't much to think about. The only thing that we've done so far here is get introduced to our new boss of sorts, and then walk around for hours looking for our room.

 _I never thought that my life here would start with struggling to find a room…_

It was getting late into the day, and I know we were supposed to try and sleep around this hour, but the fact that I've slept much more than usual the past two days, it wasn't exactly going to be easy to just go to sleep.

Kuro, however, didn't look the same way. He had also already set his things on the table adjacent to his bed, but I saw a distinctive tired look in his eyes. It wasn't natural though, something was causing him to make his eyes look the way they did. They weren't exactly tired, but they didn't look normal.

 _I think I know the cause…_

It definitely came as a shock to me that Kuro's parents were Ravens, and as soon as I heard that, I assumed that Kuro didn't know either, seeing as he didn't even know who the Ravens were, but he seemed to know that his parents were Ravens already. That wasn't the reason Kuro seemed upset though, the reason was something that Myra said soon after that.

She asked Kuro to greet his parents, not knowing what happened. While this must have brought up a lot of unwanted memories for Kuro, I don't think that was the reason behind his sudden drop in mood, at least, not the only reason. I think he realized that his parents' death wasn't even a known event, even from the pokemon who associated with them. While I can't say this for sure, I feel like the reason revolves around that.

 _Only one way to find out…_

I walked over to Kuro, who was looking down at his bed with a blank gaze. I rose my paw and gently tapped his head, to which he slightly flinched and then looked up at me. As soon as he looked at me, I almost lost my will to ask due to his eyes, but my mind was already made up.

"Hey, Kuro, is something wrong?" I asked him as softly as I could. "You seem to be a bit down."

Kuro looked at me with his blank stare for a second before shaking his head and then smiling a bit sadly at me.

"I'm okay, I've just had a few bad memories resurface when my parents were mentioned. It's nothing big." He told me.

His response assured me a little bit, but I was still worried. I couldn't tell what was going on in his head, so I didn't know if he actually felt okay or not. For now though, I had to take his word for it.

"Okay, but make sure to tell me if you need help with anything." I told Kuro, as I climbed into my bed. "I'm sure I can find a way to help you if you need it!" I tried to sound cheery as could.

When I looked over to Kuro, I saw him looking at me, but he no longer had the sadness in his eyes. In fact, he was giving me a grateful smile.

I felt a chill go up my spine and slightly averted my eyes.

"Thank you, Naru. I'll keep that in mind." He told me, before laying his body down on his bed.

I also set my body down on my bed and tried to relax.

 _Tomorrow… We both start our new lives…_

 _We'll finally be out of a nightmarish spiral for good…_

* * *

 **?**

…..

…..

 _It looks like… He finally might be growing some fangs…._

 _We might actually need to be careful…._

* * *

Hello readers!

I would like to apologize for the stall in updates, I had a good pace going for a while, but then I started an internship program at a University and that has been eating up most of my time, by most of my time I mean my schedule has been this:

Wake up

Go to program

Come home to eat

Sleep

Repeat

I promise that I'll try to find more time to write in my small amount of idle hours, but this program is going until the 21st, so after that, hopefully my upload rate will return t what it was for the first six chapters.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has left me a review or PM'd me with either feedback, or encouraging words about the story. I really appreciate it, and it reminds me of why I love to write. As for the ones that have sent me hate and told me how bad of an author I am… I could care less. I would appreciate if the hate in my PM's would stop, but it won't keep me from writing, nor will it change my writing style or tone, so if they continue, then so be it.

See you next chapter!


	8. An important history lesson

**Kai**

 _This... isn't what I was expecting…_

I was standing on one of the many dirt fields that surrounded the entirety of the Nest. Usually, I just aimlessly wait for the next day to proceed so I can do whatever mission I need to do for this place… Along with a task for my… Other bosses.

I sighed at the thought, but knew that there wasn't anything I could do to resist at the moment. Instead, I brought my attention back to the piece of paper at the base of my paws. All of the leaders at the Nest got a paper of who they would be training starting tomorrow. The paper also had a small description of what the pokemon's strengths were, as well as any additional information thought necessary. Most of the time this section was blank, but in my trainee's case, it wasn't.

' _Kuro/Umbreon'_

' _Has exceptional battling potential, more effective at close range, but can fend for himself at far range as well.'_

' _Seems to have excellent analytical and strategic abilities, can read his opponents.'_

' _Has a tendency to injure himself during battles, but has abilities that encourage him to do so._

' _Additional data:'_

' _Has a direct connection to some of the Void's members, but we are unsure as to who. This will be further investigated as he spends more time here.'_

I definitely wasn't expecting my student to be the one who admittedly got the better of me during a battle. However, this made it easier for me to see what exactly his problems and strengths in battle are. His data didn't really state anything I didn't already know through our battle, as well as his other battles in the applicant's tournament.

That is, until I got to the end of the sheet.

 _He has a direct connection to the Void… I wonder that that could be…_

As much as I didn't want to be, I am a member of the Void. I was forced into it from a young age and never had an opportunity to escape it. Being the rival organization to something as big as the Nest, the Void truly was a terrifying entity. It holds so many pokemon that are ready to kill at a moment's notice. It holds so many pokemon who get a rush from killing innocents, so many pokemon that are evil to the bone, all led by a sadistic Umbreon.

Her name… Is Luna. Really doesn't sound all that threatening, but she has killed and abused thousands of innocents… Just because it gives her pleasure. She finds killing endlessly entertaining and does it whenever she pleases. Due to this obsession, she started an organization known as the Void, one that does nothing but kill and torture innocent pokemon, as well as capture them and force them to join the Void, using threats and further torture as incentive to kill. She also doesn't have a single completely trusted companion, other than the emotionless tank of a Flygon that follows her around, as well as a few stragglers here and there who she may have just a bit of faith in.

Allegedly the Flygon, Aven, was her first partner in starting the Void as an organization. Since then, they almost never separate, and Aven became the one and only pokemon that holds Luna's trust. She truly is the biggest threat to the Nest, and I wish I could do something about it… But I don't have the power to do anything. I've been at the mercy of Luna for years among years. She knows I hate the whole place with a burning passion, she knows that I hate all of them enough to kill them on the spot due to the things I've been forced to do.

 _And yet… She knows I can't do anything about it. She knows that she's strong enough to do anything she wants._

I inwardly sighed... Realizing that further chastising myself for being useless isn't going to solve anything. I started to walk around the outward area of the Nest with nothing in particular on my mind. However, something caught my attention in one of the dirt arenas in front of me.

I saw a few glowing rings, all surrounding an Umbreon.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I took in the night air and obtained a euphoric feeling throughout my body, letting the moonlight brightly reflect off of my golden rings, which began to glow brightly. I had woken up in the middle of the night, obviously a side effect of the large amount of sleeping I've done the past few days. I didn't really view this as a negative though, as I almost forgot the way I feel while taking in the moonlight. My entire body felt so energized, I felt like I could do anything. I had to come outside in the first place in order to get my emotions in order. After the talk Naru and I had with Myra, and the mentioning of my parents, I felt upset due to the exchange, admittedly a lot more than I thought I'd be. My demeanor also worried Naru, which I really didn't want to do. In order to make sure my emotions were in order, I needed to step outside, and fill my body with the night air.

To be perfectly honest, as soon as my parents were mentioned, I got the worst feeling in my stomach. I felt sadness begin to build up inside of me, and memories began flooding my head. I ended up getting pretty close to tears, but I knew that I was standing in front of the one who thought I would be worthy as a Raven. This pokemon saw potential in me, and if I had an emotional breakdown right in front of them… I can only imagine what her impression would have been. So, I tried my best to put on an iron mask, and hid the negative emotions that were building up inside of me.

 _I may have convinced Myra that I wasn't upset… But Naru was another story…_

I sighed, wishing I could have put up a better facade. I knew that hiding and bottling up your emotions wasn't a good idea, and I knew that it would come back to bite me later, but I thought it was necessary at the time. In order to cope with the emotions, I took a huge breath, and took in more of the moonlight, raising my mood and filling me with energy.

All of that energy soon left me as soon as I saw a familiar Absol approaching me.

I completely froze as soon as I made eye contact, and a large hesitation and fear began to engulf me. I struggled to keep myself from shaking, and memories were rushing back into my head. I shook my body harshly, trying to compose myself. I took in a large breath and mentally scolded myself.

 _You've already faced him once before… Stop freezing up!_

I stopped my emotions and thoughts from going haywire and looked at Kai, who was now about five feet away from me. He was looking at me with a strange gaze, and I was returning it.

"Kuro, is it? It looks like I'm going to be your mentor starting tomorrow, so be prepared for that." He simply told me.

 _Wait… He's a leader?_

"My boss assigned mentors to the new members that match their type in order to maximize the potential between mentor and protege. We don't have very many dark type leaders, so it looks like I'll be teaching you." Kai continued.

I nodded my head in affirmation to Kai, but I didn't know what to say to him. I didn't really get the point of this conversation in the first place, did he just happen to see me and decide to tell me my trainer early?

"While I'm here, what exactly are you doing out here in the dead of night?" He asked. I tried to compose myself and get the brick out of my throat.

"I-I was just getting some air. I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep, but I think it's time I go and actually sleep for the night." I told him, wanting to end my interaction with him as soon as possible.

He gave me a small nod and then walked past me. I stood there for a second, thinking about the exchange had just had with Kai. I didn't know what the point of it was, or why he decided to approach me in the first place, but it didn't end violently. He didn't try and attack me or make any threats of any kind.

"Make sure you prepare for your life here. You were chosen for this, make the most of it." Kai finished, before walking away, leaving me stuck in one of the training fields.

 _It was almost like… I had a normal conversation with a killer…_

Quickly turning my thoughts away from the exchange, I headed back to Naru and I's room and tried to actually sleep.

* * *

I woke up the next morning feeling immensely better than the previous night. My emotions felt like they were under control, and I didn't feel the need to put on an iron mask. Strangely enough, I think me talking with Kai actually helped me. Something about interacting with what you fear makes it easier control your negative emotions. Either that, or I need to see doctor for my mood swings.

Naru and I had woken up early, as instructed, and both of us were now walking down to the dirt field in which we were told to meet. Today was most likely the day we would start our training, to which I didn't know what to expect. Right after we both woke up, I told Naru about the night prior. She was very surprised both at the fact that Kai was a leader, and that he also happened to be the one that would be training me. I was surprised at everything as well, but I suppose it wasn't the least likely thing that could happen due to our boss wanting to stick trainers with the same types as their trainees.

Naru and I made it to the end of the staircase that led to the balcony that held our room. We began to walk towards some of the dirt fields when we saw a group of pokemon gathered at one not far from our room. At first, I thought it was a group of the Nest's members, as we did see quite a few of their members just walking around, going about their business. However, upon closer inspection, they weren't just a bunch of random members.

 _Wait… Isn't that…?_

As we got closer to the group, we realized who they were.

They were the other fourteen recruits.

We closed in and stood next to them, but we were only noticed by a few of them, while the rest kept conversing with one another. While I had the opportunity, I decided to dig into my memory and see if I could distinguish all of them by name.

 _Let's see..._

 _The Honchkrow is Cole… The Frogadier is J… The Charizard is Sylph… The Gabite is Lucas… The Electrode is Eric… The Metang is Mace… The Zoroark is Vero... The Scizor is Scythe… The Dusknoir is Force… The Seviper is Mara… The Shuckle is Shell…. The Altaria is Aria… and the Manetric is Blitz…_

I somehow managed to name all thirteen of the pokemon that were in the group, but I did take note of the one that was missing. It was fairly easy to know who was missing, it's pretty hard to forget the one that not only won the whole tournament, but also the one that put me unconscious for an undisclosed amount of hours.

As if on cue, someone approached Naru and I from behind and greeted us.

"Hey! Kuro and Naru! You finally made it!" I turned around to see a familiar Luxray greet the two of us with a smile.

Almost instantly, Naru responded with her usual enthusiasm.

"Hi Kage! Congratulations on placing first! Maybe you'll get some recognition from the members as the number one recruit!" Naru exclaimed.

"That would be nice, but I doubt all of the members of the Nest know the placement." Kage responded. "By the way, I'm sorry for going a bit overboard with our battle Kuro… I didn't mean to make you pass out for so long." Kage said, bowing his head slightly.

I was a bit confused by this gesture, as not only was he explicitly told not to hold back, but also… I kind of jumped into his attack.

"You don't need to apologize, after all, I really did that to myself." I told him, awkwardly twitching my ears. "Plus, wasn't the point of that tournament to give it your all? I don't think you did anything wrong." I assured Kage.

"Not to mention… It was quite the spectacle to watch!" Naru chimed in. "I was on edge the whole time! You two really went back and forth constantly, I had no idea who would come out on top!" Naru then looked at me. "But… It was kind of decided by you jumping into a super-charged thunderbolt."

I slightly rolled my eyes at the comment, but also smiled. I knew what I did was not exactly the smartest idea, but I didn't have many options. Kage smiled at the comment as well, and Naru let out a chuckle.

"Actually, Naru, didn't you do the same thing?" I turned my eyes to her. "You blinded Kage, and then got a bit overconfident because he couldn't see, not really taking his range into account."

Naru looked at me with a questioning look, and then seemed to search her thoughts for a second.

"Well… You got me there…" Naru simply responded in defeat. "Although the one I jumped into wasn't strong enough to put me out for hours on end." She gave me a small smirk, once again prompting me to slightly roll my eyes.

Kage was watching the exchange between the two of us and seemed rather amused by it, as he kept letting out small laughs every time Naru and I would point out something the other did wrong.

Naru, Kage and I then decided to continue in idle conversation for a little while. Or, more accurately, Naru and Kage continued the conversation, while I added a comment every now and then. I could never think of something to say, or at least, not often at all. I had no idea how other pokemon could always have another topic to go to, always have another thing to say.

 _Maybe I just think too much before I speak…_

My thoughts were cut short when we heard a whistle of some kind coming from the field that we were standing closest to. I looked over to see our boss standing there, along with a lot of other members of the Nest, more accurately, leaders of the Nest. Out of all of the leaders there, I was able to pick out two that I recognized.

Kai was standing right behind our boss.

And close to Kai's left… Stood a Flygon.

The same one that I knew all too well.

Once again, I felt distressing emotions fill me, but I couldn't show them. For the same reasons that I held back emotions when we first arrived at the Nest, I couldn't show my fear and uneasiness. I ended up digging my claws into the ground, and I hoped that nobody noticed. Luckily, it didn't look like anyone did.

 _Just… Calm down… Focus on what you need to do…_

I took a deep breath and focused on our boss once more.

She was looking at all of the recruits with what looked like an excited grin, and then she started to announce why she had fifteen leaders behind her.

"Good morning to you all. As you know, today is the day you will all be introduced to your mentors, and also the day in which you will start your training. However, I'm here to announce two more things all of you must do before you continue."

All of the recruits gave a somewhat questioning look, seemingly not knowing what she was talking about. I knew what one of the things we needed to do were, but not the other.

"If you remember, you not only swore to secrecy when you joined here, but you also agreed to have your Minds read." After she finished that sentence, a Gallade stepped up from behind her. "This is Gale, and he will be checking each of your minds to make sure that you don't have any association with the Void." Once again, there were many confused faces given.

"For those of you that don't know, the Void is an organization of pokemon who do nothing but murder innocents. They directly rival the Nest, and almost all sixteen of you have at least one experience with them in the past, whether you know it or not. The purpose of the mind reading is to make sure we don't have any agents from the Void trying to infiltrate our organization."

As soon as Myra finished talking, I was fairly confused. However, this confusion was limited to me, as well as Naru.

 _How did Kai and that Flygon get past this type of security…?_

In the end, I assumed they had some way to manipulate their minds in order for their connections to not be recognized by whoever read their minds.

 _Maybe they have a psychic in the Void that can do that…_

I wasn't gaining anything by continuing on my train of thought, so I turned my attention to the Gallade that was going to each one of the recruits and reading their minds. After each pokemon, he would just nod his head to Myra, signaling that they were clear. However, before he got past the first three, he was interrupted so Myra could tell the group something.

"Oh right, for those of you who are dark types, Kuro and Vero, Gale needs to use a different method of reading your minds than usual due to your normal immunity to psychics. Just as a warning, this process is a bit painful, so make sure you expect it."

Right after Myra finished notifying everybody, Gale continued to go one by one, reading all of their minds, until he got to me.

He placed one of his blades on top of my head, and it began to glow. Soon after, I felt a strong pressure in my head. This pressure soon gravitated to my entire body. At first, I thought that was what Myra meant when she said it would painful, but as soon as that thought passed through my head, a sharp ache expanded throughout my entire body. I grunted slightly and dug my claws further into the ground. The pain continued to slowly increase, until I felt it stop. It was strange, one second I was getting the worst headache of my life, the next didn't have any pain.

My claws' grip loosened, and I gave a small sigh of relief.

"Are you okay? You looked like you were in a lot of pain just now." Naru asked me.

"I'm fine, it didn't last too long. However, it was pretty intense for a few moments." I told her.

Gale then read the minds of everyone in the group. Vero had a similar reaction to mine when she got analysed, which was to be expected. Nobody ended up having any connection to the Void, which was a positive of course. At least, nobody allying with them. I thought about the fact that I had just gotten my mind read and realized that now Myra will most likely know the truth of my parents not being alive. She'll also know that I played it off as if they were alive, and I hoped that I wouldn't get approached about that.

"Now that everyone has checked out, I have one more thing that I need all of you to do. As you may know, we, as Ravens, have an insignia to show our membership. You may have seen it on some of our doors or on the rooftops. You need to have that symbol imbedded somewhere on your body. It doesn't need to be visible if you so choose, but you do need it to be on your body somewhere. It also is going to be a permanent branding, so make sure you really know where you want it to be. There is a Bisharp that I'm sure many of you have already met that is in a small building right next to our main lobby. He will handle your brandings. After you finish that, come back to this field and find your mentor. Once you do, you will start your training. I will inform you that we only have one electric-type leader, so Kage and Blitz, you will have the same trainer. That is all I wanted to talk to you all about, I wish you all good luck!" Myra then returned to her office.

Naru, Kage and I all stayed in a group while walking to the designated building where we would get our brandings. Naru was practically shaking the whole way there because she was about to have a symbol burned into her. Because she was an ice-type, she wasn't so keen on the idea. Since I had already been straight up lit on fire recently, I wasn't very worried. Not to mention, I was too distracted to pay attention to the fact we were going to be branded in the first place. My mind was still with the group of leaders we saw earlier, and the fact that a certain Flygon was present.

The presence itself was enough to give me questions, after all, this meant that not only was Kai a leader of the Nest, but that Flygon as well. This rose the question in my mind; What about the Umbreon? I now knew the location of two of the pokemon I've been looking for. Because it seemed they were in a group back then, I would think they'd be in a group when I next encountered them, but being at the Nest proved me wrong. I encountered Kai twice without seeing the other two, and now I had encountered both Kai and the Flygon without any sign of the Umbreon.

 _I guess there isn't any guarantee that the Umbreon isn't here… But there isn't anything telling me they are either. All three of them have the symbol of the Void, meaning they are all connected. Maybe they don't regularly work in a group? Maybe Kai and the Flygon are giving information to the Umbreon who is still at the Void? Maybe the Umbreon couldn't join the Nest for some reason? Maybe…_

"Kuro, are you okay? You're kind of spacing out." I was snapped back into reality by Naru. I turned my head to see both her and Kage giving me a concerned look, as I had been staring at the ground mumbling to myself almost the entire walk to the building where we were to be branded.

"I-I'm okay, just kind of lost in thought is all." I responded, putting on a somewhat forced smile.

"Whatever you say…" Naru said, slightly unconvinced, as we made it to the door of the building.

The door was a large, plain, wooden door. Kage knocked once on the door, waiting for a response. Soon after, the door opened, and we found a familiar Bisharp.

"Ah, I remember you!" He said as soon as he opened the door. "You're the one who won the tournament, and you two are the ones who joined last second...Kuro, Naru, and Kage, right?" He asked, prompting a nod from all three of us separately. "Great! My name is Core, nice to officially meet all of you!" He said before pausing.

"Now, I'll have to put our symbol on you one at a time, for safety reasons. So, Kuro, can you come in first?"

I nodded my head and stepped into the room. I was somewhat grateful that I was getting mine done first, as I wanted Naru to have as much time as possible to prepare herself, after all, she seemed legitimately scared to get the symbol embedded into her.

 _Just hang in there… You'll survive…_

I entered the room that Core guided me into, instantly taking note of my surroundings. All of the walls sported no color other than a light brown from the smoothed out wood that they were made out of. The walls were filled to the brim with different types of tools, many of which I didn't recognize. There was a small tank in the middle of the room, and before I even fully stepped in, I could feel the heat coming from it. The floor under it was also wooden, having the same coloring that reflected off of the walls. As far as I could see, there was also only one chair in the room, and it was against the back wall, behind the tank and in a small space in which there weren't any tools.

Core walked across the wooden floor to the chair on the other side and sat down in it. I stayed on the other side of the tank, the floor creating a rather foreign feeling to my paws. I've seen plenty of walls that had the same wooden decor as this floor, but I had never felt them before. It was a rather pleasant smooth feeling. Before I could think about the floor any more, Core acknowledged me.

"So, before I permanently brand a symbol on your body, I need to talk to you about something."

 _Interesting wording…_

I nodded to Core.

"What do you need to know?" I asked him.

"Well, after the psychics read everyone's minds, I get relayed the information. I understand that you had a rather… Troubled eight years before you came here." He told me.

I was slightly taken aback by this. I knew that, due to this mind reading, they would know something… Maybe my parents not being alive, but I didn't think it was this thorough. He specifically mentioned the amount of years from the time they did die, to the time I decided to leave. It didn't feel like my mind was read, it more felt like someone looked into every event of my past.

I realized that I had not said anything in response to Core in about twenty seconds, prompting me to slightly shake my head and gather my thoughts.

"How come you need to know our past events?" I asked him, not wanting to lounge around the subject for long.

"For some pokemon, they may not want the branding in a certain spot for a reason they may not want to talk about. I get notified of any of these occurrences. It helps with the comfort of the recruits." He told me. "Now, I understand I'm doing the complete opposite with you right now, but I have a reason for it. Do you want to hear a story?"

"A story..?" I was confused by what Core was trying to say.

"You see, I actually associated with Storm and Blade quite a bit when they were Ravens. I was pretty close to them. I may not look it, but I'm also pretty old." He told me with a slight smile.

I had to admit, he had me intrigued. I usually didn't like staying on the subject whenever my parents got brought up, but this wasn't revolving around their deaths. Core most likely wanted to tell me a story from when they were Ravens, a story that I admittedly wanted to hear.

"I'll listen." I told him.

Core smiled and then cleared his throat.

* * *

 **Blade**

 _I never thought my heart would ever be beating so fast..._

I stood in a plain-looking waiting room, waiting for a red light above the exit to turn green. A little while back, I learned of an organization known as the Nest, one that has the purpose of helping pokemon that need it. There isn't much crime around where I live, but whenever I went out to a city or somewhere I wasn't too familiar with, I did notice the occasional mishap. Nothing as extreme as murder, but crimes that can put less fortunate pokemon in bad places. Even know I lived far away from all of this, I wanted to help with it. There was one town that I visited frequently, it's name is Myriad, and lately, I've noticed a lot of crime there. I thought if I applied to join this group, I may be able to help out a town that is already close to my original home.

 _However, this application… Was a 'maybe' sort of thing… Not a 'I'm about to be in the finals' sort of thing._

I took a deep breath, steadying my heartbeat. I already knew who my opponent was. It was a Vaporeon that went by the name of Storm. I tried my best to watch the way she fought in the her match prior, knowing that she was the most likely candidate for me to battle in the finals. She fought very elegantly, not missing a single step on a dodge, not missing a single opening for an attack. I, on the other hand, had quite sloppy victories on my first two battles. After I adapted to the arena, I improved, but I don't believe I've really grasped using my environment to my advantage yet. My opponent certainly has, so I knew I was in for a tough battle.

I heard a small ping, and looked to the top of the exit. The previously red light had turned green.

I took a large breath, readying myself for the battle ahead.

Without hesitation, I stepped into the rocky arena.

I heard loud cheering from all around me the second I took a step in, it has been the same for all of the battles. Even know a majority of the crowd include pokemon who already lost in the tournament, they were always excited to see another battle. I loved the energy of all of the pokemon around me, but it made me all the more nervous.

I looked across the arena's scattered rock to see my opponent, Storm. Both of us were almost guaranteed to be accepted at this point, as our past two victories were against a Magmortar and Electivire respectively, both of us being at a disadvantage. That combined with our making it to the finals put us at a fairly large chance to be accepted into the Nest.

 _This is a battle of who will be number one..._

"Alright! Are both sides ready?" Asked a Bisharp that had been announcing the whole tournament.

I gave a firm nod, as did Storm. I was trying to read her emotions, but coming up blank. It was strange, she didn't have an emotionless face, but I couldn't pin exactly what she was feeling. It was something between anticipation and eagerness, almost like she just wanted to get the battle over with.

"Then let's get started! Three! Two! One!"

"Begin!"

As soon as the battle had started, Storm had sprayed a powerful stream of water at one of the biggest rocks in the arena. The rock exploded into many pieces, flying through the entire arena. Some of the rocks landed close to me, but none actually made contact.

Paying attention to those rocks… Was my first mistake.

My focus was loosely on both the rocks and Storm, but I couldn't react to the rainbow colored beam that flew towards me, directly hitting the side of my body. I felt a very uncomfortable cold rush through my body, and a sharp pain to follow. I almost didn't realize that Storm was rushing me, not giving me a chance to make a plan. In order to try and take her off guard, I rushed directly at her, preparing a leaf blade. I seemed to have succeeded in taking her off guard, because a panicked expression overtook her features. I swung the leaf poised on the top of my head down at Storm, but she created a purple shielding around her body just as my attack was going to make contact. My blade did slam into the shield, and Storm let out a small grunt, signaling that my attack did do damage, but it was greatly reduced by Storm's acid armor.

Storm then quickly retaliated with another aurora beam, but I was able to react to it this time, sidestepping out of the way. I then lept back, creating a lot of space between the two of us. I wanted to charge a solar beam, but that was going to take a lot of time. Because of this, I decided to keep my distance, and keep Storm on guard, since she most likely wouldn't know what I was planning.

This was my second, and fatal mistake.

Storm read me like a book, immediately pushing me after I jumped back. The next thing she did completely caught me off guard. She looked like she was going to launch a hydro pump at me, but instead she shot a stream of water lightly, and then controlled it to be raised over her head. The water now looked like a tentacle coming from her back. I tried canceling my charge, and attempting to hit her with a leaf blade, but she quickly shot the tentacle at me, and it promptly wrapped around my body, lifting me into the air. She then immediately flung me at the wooden wall surrounding the rocky arena, and I slammed into it.

The battle was over, and I had lost.

Despite losing in the finals, while listening to the crowd cheer after the battle, I wasn't upset in the slightest. I was, more than anything, intrigued by the Vaporeon that I had just battled. Not only did she have the best battle instincts I've ever seen, but she pulled out a technique that I hadn't thought was possible. She somehow controlled a stream of water after she had shot it, and even turned it into a tool to use in battle. That, to me, was the most unique battling style I had ever seen.

The Bisharp announced Storm's victory, making the crowd cheer and shout even louder. Storm looked rather flustered at the cheering, which made me lightly smile in amusement. However, I wasn't expecting her to stick around in the arena. She hadn't moved from the spot she threw me into the wall from. It was almost like she was frozen because of the attention on her. I decided to approach her near the middle of the arena.

"Good battle Storm!" I told her. "What exactly did you do with that water? I've never seen anything like it!"

Storm looked at me with an intrigued gaze. I saw her expression change from the anxious one she had held for a second. She looked a very small bit more comfortable than she did a few seconds ago. I didn't understand why, but I was glad she wasn't frozen anymore.

"I-I just controlled the water." She told me. "A-Also, Good battle!" She tried to make her tome more energetic.

I gave her a smile and both of us walked out of the arena.

Soon after that, Storm and I stayed close to each other, making conversation and waiting for the results to be announced. She was nowhere near as stiff as she was out in the arena, and I had a fun time talking to her. She was also the first person I actually talked to since I arrived at the building, so it was nice to finally have met someone.

Once the results were announced, Storm took first place and I took second. I congratulated her, making her become flustered. Following us on the rankings was a Magmortar and an Electivire. Storm and I found these two and began talking to them. We made a nice little group that we stuck with all the way to the Nest.

Once we started working for the Nest, Storm and I began getting a lot closer. We went on almost every mission with each other, and were almost never separated. We didn't associate with many of our teammates, other than the Bisharp who announced the tournaments and the Electivire and Magmortar who were now in a relationship, we kept to ourselves.

After a few years of doing tasks for the Nest, I proposed to Storm, to which she happily accepted. We worked at the Nest for quite a bit longer, as of then, I had spent more than half of my life at the Nest.

After I had this revelation, Storm and I decided to have a child. After Storm became pregnant, we both retired as Ravens. We moved to the place I used to live, a peaceful little cove near the forest. There, we began to raise a small Eevee named Kuro. After we started to live away from the Nest, the two of us stayed in contact with all of our fellow Ravens, talking about our new lives away from the Nest. We would even go in and occasionally take on missions they were short-handed for, but that made our son uncomfortable, so we tried to lay off of it as much as we could.

Although, we didn't know we'd only see him until he was eight.

We still made the most of our lives, and both of us knew that Kuro would live on and make us proud.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I smiled to myself multiple times as Core told me about events that both my parents and of himself participated in. I was also very grateful that Core told me how my parents joined the Nest, as well as how they met each other. It gave me a clear picture of events I never asked about, and I was very happy to know.

It was also the first time my parents were talked about and I didn't want the conversation to end.

"Your parents were a very lively couple, and I was the one who branded both of their Nest symbols. They most likely hid them before you were born, that's the only way I could think you didn't know about them being Ravens. If you want, I can put your symbol in the same spot I put theirs."

I perked my head up at the suggestion.

"I… Would love that." I told Core. "Also, thank you, Core. You told me a lot of things I didn't know about my parents, and I greatly appreciate it." I told him, bowing my head.

"Not a problem. If you ever want to hear some… Interesting stories I have with your parents, let me know." I laughed at Core's statement, and then he prepared to burn the Ravens' symbol into my body.

I let Core do his thing, and I felt closer to my parents than I have in a long time.

I exited the small building, and Kage and Naru greeted me with smiles. Surprisingly, they didn't question why I had been in there so long, but I didn't complain. Then again, they may have been too distracted by the symbol itself to ask why I was with Core for so long.

I now had an addition to my pure black fur. On the left side of my body, above my stomach and under my back, there was a shining white star, all five points shaded in. In the middle of that star, there was a talon.

"Wow, that symbol makes a great contrast with your fur Kuro!" Naru told me cheerily. "You picked a great spot!"

Naru's enthusiasm made me blush slightly.

"She's not wrong, it looks good on you, Kuro!" Kage then commented, also flustering me a bit.

Soon after Core came out and asked for Naru to come in. She made a nervous shudder. She reluctantly walked into the building, leaving Kage and I behind.

"Arceus have mercy on her…" I commented.

"Hopefully she'll be okay…" Kage then said.

A few minutes later, Naru came out of the building while rubbing a paw on the left side of her body.

"It burnnnnnnssss…." Naru said with a tone as if she had just went through a war.

Her tone almost distracted me from the fact she got her symbol in the same spot I got mine. It almost wasn't visible, as Naru had light fur, and the symbol itself was white, but it wasn't too hard to spot if you were looking for it.

"I thought it looked great on Kuro, so I got mine in the same spot, how does it look?" Naru asked, still rubbing around the symbol.

"I think it looks great Naru!" I told her, trying to mimic her enthusiasm.

"It does look good, but it's a bit hard to see…" Kage commented.

"Yeah… I didn't really think of how the color would look on the lightest part of my fur, but I'm sure it-ow!" Naru was cut off by more burning. "Sometimes I wish I wasn't an ice type…"

I laughed at Naru's comment, and Kage also let out a small chuckle.

Kage was then called in to the building by Core, leaving Naru and I outside to wait for him. Naru was closely inspecting the symbol on my body, and by closely inspecting, I mean she was literally two centimeters from it, staring intently. It started to make me a little bit uncomfortable, so I tried to make conversation, as socially inept as I am.

However, before I could try and embarrass myself, Naru asked me a question.

"Why did you decide to put the symbol there?" She asked. "I mean, It looks great, but is there a reason?"

"According to Core, my parents both had their symbols here when they were Ravens, and he asked me if I wanted mine in the same spot." I explained. "That's also the reason I was in there for so long, he was telling me how my parents met, and a few things they did here as Ravens."

"Really? Your parents had good senses of style!" She exclaimed, making me smile. "That makes me glad mine is in the same spot. It gives it reasoning beyond the way it looks."

I nodded at Naru, keeping my smile. She returned the smile, and we stood there, staring at each other's eyes for a few seconds. Neither of us moved, or made a sound. We just stood there, mesmerized by each other.

The silence was broken when we heard the door of the small building next to us open, prompting both Naru and I to avert our eyes from each other, trying to not let embarrassment cloud our faces.

Kage walked towards us, and held out a paw. On the top of one of his front paws was the Nests' symbol, making a similar contrast on his fur as it did on mine.

"It looks great Kage!" I told him, using enthusiasm to break my earlier embarrassment.

"Y-Yeah, it does!" Naru said after me.

All three of us then started to walk back to the dirt field we came from.

It was time to meet our mentors.

* * *

Hello readers!

So I ended up having a lot of extra time during my internship, all of which I used to type this chapter. I wasn't expecting to have this time, but I'm not going to complain.

Also, let me know what you think of the flashback part of this chapter, I kind of decided to do that on a whim, so I have no idea how well it will be received, but let me know for future chapters, it would be really helpful!

Finally, I want to thank all of you who have given me constructive criticism or kind PMs regarding this story, it really makes my day when I'm trying to listen to a professor rant about entrepreneurship for five hours!

See you all next chapter!


	9. Mentors: A calm before the storm

**Aven**

… _._

… _._

 _I suppose they'll be back soon._

I stood at one of the Nest's many dirt fields, waiting for the recruits to come back, I was supposed to train one of them after all. I hated looking at this line of recruits, as I realized that more than a few of them can easily become threats to Luna and I in the future. I hadn't planned on actually training one of the recruits that I was supposed to, but if I didn't, I would raise quite a bit of suspicion, and since I already don't have the best outlook at this place, I decided to swallow my medicine and actually train someone.

I wouldn't be training one of our bigger threats, but I could tell that he had some potential.

I wanted to take advantage of this.

That was for after I train him for a while though, I need to play my cards right.

With the data I've sent to Luna, we've compiled a few pokemon that may be threatening to us. First and foremost, the one who won the tournament, the Luxray named Kage.

He seemed like he would contend with most of the stronger members of the Void, and I would think of him as slightly threatening had I not been partially a ground type. I could tell he would be a force to be reckoned with, but I couldn't do anything to prevent it. Of course, if he were fighting Luna or myself, he wouldn't stand a chance, so I wasn't overly worried.

Next was the Zoroark named Vero. Although she didn't stick out the most in the application tournament, I could tell that, once she's trained, she'll be stronger than most of the Void. She had a very effective technique that would beat most other pokemon in battle, it was just the raw strength and speed that she needed to improve on.

After that is the Glaceon named Naru. This is one that stuck out to both Luna and I. Not only was she strong physically, but she also had a very open mind when it came to battling. That could prove to be a problem. All of the Void other than our officers are only trained to battle the expected, and Naru will certainly not bring expected tactics.

 _I should find a way to take care of her… As well as her 'companion.'_

This brings me to the last pokemon that could become a threat, one that I never thought Luna or myself would see again, but I had been proven wrong.

The last concern is Kuro the Umbreon. I had actually seen this Umbreon before I started spying inside of the Nest. I saw him when he was an Eevee, about eight years ago. I had also killed one of his parents. Afterward, I watched as Luna forced Kai to abuse him alongside her.

I never had the same feelings around torture that Luna had. I enjoyed killing like her, but I never saw the point of torturing before killing or instead of killing. Of course, that didn't seperate us, it just meant we had different tastes. I liked to kill, while she liked to cause as much misery as possible.

I was surprised that Kuro even stepped out of the forest after what the three of us did to him, I was even more surprised that he didn't straight up die while surviving on his own, or end his own life. Instead, he did who knows what for eight years before joining the Nest. He wasn't totally alone either, he seemed to come to the application tournament with a friend. I don't know how he met this pokemon, but that wasn't the only thing he surprised me with when he came here. He was strong. He held his own in a lot of situations that I didn't expect him to last a second in. Hell, he beat Kai in a battle, although he didn't knock him out, he still outsmarted him. I don't think Kai even recognized Kuro, otherwise I think he would have said something to me by now.

Regardless, other than his skill and strategy in battling, Kuro had one thing that set him apart from the others, one thing that made him a bigger threat than others to us.

He had a grudge.

I could tell by the look in his eyes when he first saw me before all of the recruits went to get their Nest symbols. His eyes were filled with surprise, fear, and anxiety, not expecting to see me at the Nest, but his eyes also had something hidden beneath the surface.

He had hatred in his eyes.

Of course I wouldn't expect anything else, after all, the three of us essentially ruined his life. That combined with the fangs he's grown in the past eight years most likely meant he would come for us eventually.

Having that thought in my head was the first thing other than Luna to make me smile.

 _I'd like to see you try… You will fail… and Luna will be very pleased._

Cutting off my thoughts, I saw that all of the recruits had come back from getting their Nest symbols in various places.

I saw Kuro walk to Kai, and they both left to go to another field.

I looked at my trainee's paper again.

' _Lucas/Gabite'_

' _Has very fast movements and reaction time, but slightly lacks in strength'_

' _Seems to try and get into his opponents' heads, he has had it both work greatly and backfire.'_

' _Has a strong control over his ground abilities and tends to use them in ways that does not affect the land around him.'_

 _Additional Information:_

 _Has some concerning actions in the past, we will keep a close eye on him during his_

 _time here._

This additional information filled my mind with possibilities.

I saw Lucas in the distance, and began to approach him.

* * *

 **Kuro**

All of the recruits had found their mentors and all went to different parts of the Nest to train. Naru was being trained by a Froslass that almost matched her energetic attitude, and I knew they would get along. Kage is sharing a mentor with Blitz. That mentor is a rather strict looking Heliolisk.

I mentally wished Kage good luck as he left.

I was one of the last to leave, right before Lucas and Vero. Kai and I were standing across from one another in a field nowhere close to the one we started at. The field had one of the larger parts of the Nest's buildings, the other side had nothing but green plains. If you looked far enough, you could also see a body of water far out.

 _This place really is in the middle of nowhere…_

"To start things off, how well can you control the dark energy inside of your body?" Kai asked me, making me slightly confused.

"What exactly do you mean?" I asked him.

"Every dark type uses their dark moves by controlling a the dark force inside of their bodies. You probably don't know because you use your moves instinctively, not knowing exactly how they work. If you know how to control the dark energy inside of your body, you can do a lot of things with it other than standard moves." Kai explained.

After he did, Kai stuck out his paw and wrapped it in what looked like dark tendrils. He looked like he could control each individual tendril, and I watched as they moved up and down his leg. He also raised one of them from his leg and pointed it at me.

"As you can see, Dark types can expel this energy from your body and use it externally. It takes a bit of practice to gain control of it, but once you do, it's a very useful tool." Kai further explained while I nodded slowly through the whole thing.

"Whenever you use a dark type move, you should feel the energy morphing through your body. I guarantee you that you've felt it every time, but I just think you never knew what it was. It's not a feeling I can describe, it's almost like an instinct." Kai moved his tendrils further from his body and wrapped them around each other. "What you need to do is take control of that instinct, feel your instinct and expel it out of your body. Try shooting off a dark attack, and pay attention to how your body feels once you do."

I nodded to Kai and prepared to launch a dark pulse into the distance. I built up my energy, trying to focus on the way it felt. I shot the dark pulse into the large field adjacent to us. At first, nothing felt out of the ordinary, but that was most likely because I've launched who knows how many attacks throughout my life, never focusing on how exactly it felt. I began to charge another dark pulse, this time, closing my eyes and concentrating.

 _Be patient..._

 _Focus on your body…_

… _...There!_

I let out a small grunt, and attempted to grasp the energy that I felt inside of me. Kai was right when he said there wasn't a concrete feeling to control, it was just… something you felt, like an instinct.

Without shooting off another attack, I managed to find the feeling within my body again.

 _Find the energy… And draw it out…_

Just as if I was going to use an attack, I attempted to draw out the energy that I felt inside of me. I took in a breath and focused. I felt myself get a grip on the feeling, and then I launched it forward as I would with any dark attack.

I felt a strange sensation on my back, and it prompted me to turn my head and look.

I had two, fairly large tendrils eroding from my back, which were flailing around a bit wildly, and I felt every move they made. It almost felt like I had nerves inside of them, ones that connected to my body translating anything I felt with them straight to the center of my body. I couldn't control where they went, but I was surprised that I actually managed to pull it off despite it being my first time trying it. Judging by Kai's face, he was also quite surprised.

"I have to say i'm impressed." Kai said, not changing his expression much.

"It wasn't that-" I was cut off by an enormous pain.

I let out a small shriek, and I dropped all weight in one of my front legs. The tendrils quickly retracted into my body, and I was left on the ground, taking in heavy breaths.

"What… Was… That..?" I asked in between breaths.

"That would be the hard part about controlling that ability." Kai explained. "Whenever a pokemon tries to harness it, it can have varying side effects. For example, when I was learning how to do it, I was affected by severe drowsiness every time I used it. I would fall asleep not thirty minutes later after my usage." Kai retracted his twisted tendrils back into his leg. "Your side-effect seems to be extreme pain, and considering that you didn't let out a shriek like that when I bit halfway into your flesh, I can assume that pain is almost unbearable."

"No… Kidding…" I responded. "How… How do you get past… Something like this..?"

"The more you practice using it, the less pain is drawn. Eventually, you'll be able to use it while feeling little to no pain in aftermath, but you need to deal with the worst of it before you get there."

I felt the pain slowly leave my body and I still stood slightly slumped against the ground. The pain was one of the worst I had ever felt in my life, but it didn't last that long, probably because I only used the skill for a few seconds.

I took a long breath, and put weight back on my front leg, most of the pain having left me.

"I still find it impressive that you grasped that skill so quickly, it's just a shame that your side-effect is going to be a hard one to bear." Kai told me.

"I'm sure I'll power through it eventually, but I don't think I should be doing that more than once a day." I told him.

"Understandable. So shall I spar with you then? I want to get a better grasp of your strengths and weaknesses in battle." Kai asked me.

Before I could respond, my thoughts cut me off.

 _Am I normally talking to Kai right now…?_

Kai wasn't acting with malicious intent, and wasn't threatening me in any way, he was just… Teaching me. He was being my mentor because he was assigned to it. We've been at it for less than an hour, and I had already learned a new technique that, when I perfect it, could be an incredibly useful tool.

 _When he's at the Nest, under constant supervision and trying to hide his connections with the Void… He really is just a leader at the Nest. He's strong too, and he's going to train me to be stronger._

 _Regardless of who it is… I can't throw away this opportunity._

I gave Kai a nod, and both of us rushed each other, claws bared.

* * *

 **Naru**

I flew across the dirt field and rolled onto my side. After slowly pushing myself up, I tried to find my mentor, but all that I managed to do was get knocked over again. I then saw a white figure materialize in front of me.

"Why don't we stop for a little bit, I don't want to break something by mistake."

I slowly stood up on my paws once more, although not feeling the most steady.

"You really showcased some power there! I can tell you have a lot of potential!"

The voice that was cheerily shouting at me was my mentor as of today. A Froslass named Shard. Apparently, she requested specifically to be my mentor after watching the applicants' tournament. I didn't really know why, but it was safe to say that she was on another level of strength and speed, I could only land a few light blows on her since we started, and she's knocked me over a countless number of times.

"Why don't we stop with sparring for now, I think I have an idea of areas you need to work on." Shard told me.

"I think that's a good idea…" I responded, lowering my body towards the ground for a second. I took in a few breaths, already feeling sore from getting knocked around a dirt field. Not to mention, even her just slapping me with the back of her hand felt waaaay more painful than anything I had even been hit with previously, save for a few fire attacks. After catching my breath, I put my body's weight onto my four paws once more.

I walked towards Shard, and stood a few feet away from her.

"I noticed that your battling style relies on disabling your opponent. By all means, that is an effective style as is, but take into consideration battling someone like me. Even when you land hits, I'm an ice type as well. This means you won't be able to cripple my battling by freezing me. Seeing as that's your main way of battling, you can be countered too easily."

"You have impressive strength, and you're pretty fast, you just need to tweak your strategy." Shard said.

"That's where I'm stuck. I've battled the same way throughout my life, so I don't really have a plan B." I told her.

"Then make one!" She responded, and in her cheery voice. "You seem to use your attacks very effectively, but do you ever use ice in the form of something other than a direct attack?" She asked me.

"What do you mean?" I asked back.

"For example… Ah!" shard flew slightly ajar from the field we were using and grabbed a pokemon who was walking by, regardless of their struggling.

 _Isn't that… Vero?_

Shard dropped Vero in the middle of the dirt field, and then went back next to me.

Vero was looking around, clearly confused by why she had just been grabbed by a random Froslass and put into one of the dirt fields. I mean, she was just kind of walking around, minding her own business, and a random Nest leader came out of nowhere and dropped her in the middle of a field. I would probably be surprised too.

"Now, Naru, observe!"

Shard placed both of her hands on the ground, and they began to slightly glow.

Suddenly, an enormous wave of ice formed on the ground, flying towards Vero. Once it hit her feet, the ice spread up her body, freezing everything but her head. The ice also spread a decent range around her, almost reaching my feet.

"O-Ow! Why are you-" The ice encasing Vero collapsed, releasing her. She then fell down onto the dirt ground beneath her, covered in ice.

"And now! I will show you how you can manipulate your element!" Shard shouted.

Suddenly, the ice that was still at Vero's feet rose from the ground in a giant pillar, and Vero was stuck on top of it. She looked even more confused than before.

"What is the purpose of trapping me up-"

"As you can see, your icy abilities go far beyond using standard moves!" Shard shouted, cutting off Vero for the second time.

Shard then flew up her pillar, and grabbed Vero, bringing her back down to the ground.

"Sorry about that recruit! But I saw a demonstration opportunity and I had to take it! Hopefully you don't hate me after that." Shard said, facing Vero.

Vero looked a lot more confused than angry.

"I don't hate anyone over this… Just… Please don't do that to me anymore." Vero said to Shard.

"Yay! You can carry on with whatever you were doing." Vero then walked back to the path she was originally walking on, heading back to the main lobby of the Nest.

 _Isn't she supposed to be with a mentor..?_

"Now! Naru!" Shard shouted. "I'm going to spar with you again. Remember, you need to find a way to consistently damage pokemon like me. You said you've battled the same way throughout your life, but I know you can find other ways!" Shard looked at me, and I saw a glimmer of something I couldn't quite place in her eyes. "Show me some of those creative juices from the applicants' tournament!" after saying that, Shard flew slightly above the ground, ready to speed at me without giving any time to react.

 _Think creatively… I know I can find another way to do damage!_

I jumped out of the way of Shard's attack, barely avoiding it. She quickly turned and prepared to rush me again. However, this time, I had to think of something.

 _Maybe… If I can try the thing She did…_

Shard was getting closer to me with each passing moment. When she got closer to me, I realized she had a lot of momentum built up, and I saw an opportunity.

I quickly focused on the paw that I had on the ground, and a small glow began to envelop it. I rose my paw and stomped it on the ground, spreading a sheet of ice along a wide area in the field of dirt.

Quickly after, a pillar of ice rose inches in front of where Shard was flying, however, she reacted instantly and changed her course to go around it. The pillar was small enough for her to fly over, but she still went around it.

As she got to the other side of the pillar, she was expecting to be close to me, expecting to be able to land a hit on me as soon as she got to the other side.

Little did she know, this was what I wanted.

I slammed my tail into the pillar from the other side, which I immediately dashed to upon making it. The pillar broke into a large amount of small icy shards, all flying in the direction of Shard.

She seemed to be preparing herself to dodge around all of them, meaning I had an opportunity to catch her off guard.

She swerved through all of the ice eloquently, but she wasn't expecting a shadow ball from directly under her.

The attack landed a direct hit into her stomach, and Shard lowered to the ground. She then lifted her head up, placing one of her hands on it. I was met with a large smile.

"Now that… That is what I wanted to see!" Shard shouted. "That really hurt, and you totally faked me out! I thought you were trying to make me fly into that pillar, but that was a distraction which gave you the opportunity to make another distraction, which led to you landing a direct hit on me! That was great Naru!" Shard praised, slightly flustering me.

"It was only because you suggested I do different things with controlling ice." I told her.

"Yes, but you used the information brilliantly!" Shard started to fly to the end of the field. "I think that's all we can do for today, make sure to make use of this training when you start going on missions tomorrow!"

"Right!"

I bowed my head and Shard left the area, presumably heading back to wherever her room was. I didn't realize how long I'd been training until I looked up at the sky and saw it's coloring significantly less bright and less blue.

 _I wonder if Kuro is done by now…_

I decided to head back to our room, realizing I didn't have anything else to do.

* * *

When I arrived back, Kuro wasn't there yet, so I assumed he was still with Kai. However, when my thoughts went in that direction, a chill went up my spine and I started to worry.

 _Wait… He's with Kai… He's with a member of the Void… All alone…_

My mind shifted quickly from worry, to slight panicking, but luckily, my anxiety was quelled when I heard the door to my right open.

Then, Kuro walked in.

"Kuro! You're back!" I walked up to him.

And then I saw his wounds.

"Arceus! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a side-effect of having a strict mentor." Kuro said with a calm voice. "I knew training with him would be tough… But I feel like he drew blood a few too many times for a training…"

"Wow, he went that far?" I asked.

"To be honest, I kind of appreciate him going that far." He said. "Sure, it hurts like nothing else, but I feel like I improved a lot over one session of training because he went as far as he did."

After hearing Kuro answer, another worry came into my head.

"You don't think he'll… Take it too far, do you?" I asked.

Kuro looked up at the ceiling for a second before replying.

"If you're talking about him being a Void member, than I don't think he'll try anything." He told me. "I think the reason him and that Flygon are here in the first place is to keep eyes on the developing Ravens, pick out which ones may be threats in the future. In order for them to fully determine someone as a threat, they need to see them go towards their full potential, which means neither of them will make a move immediately. If either of them try and make a move here, then their cover will most likely need to be blown. They need to observe the recruits before they do anything, so I don't see any violent acts in the near future."

Kuro's explanation put me in a state of awe. We had both just arrived here, and Kuro has deduced this much information. Sure, it may have all been conjecture, but it sounded accurate, and I wouldn't doubt for a second that his theory is right.

"Wow… Kuro that's amazing!" I cheerily told him. I watched as his ears twitched slightly, and I swear I saw his rings flash a light for a second.

"I-I'm just basing all of this off of educated guesses, so none of it is confirmed." He told me, obviously flustered at my comment.

I found it very amusing to praise Kuro, not only because he deserves the praise I give him, by also because of how easily he gets embarrassed. It made me feel at peace whenever I said something to Kuro that praised him, and his response was a stutter trying to tell me why he wasn't worthy of praise.

 _It's also… really adorable._

"All Void theories aside, how did your training go Naru?" Kuro asked me.

"Well, it started off with me getting tossed around for a few hours, but then my mentor gave me some advice on how to change my battling style when necessary, and I started to make actual improvements! However, all I really did was hit her directly once…" I said.

"Don't sell yourself short, Naru." Kuro shook his head. "You have to remember that you're battling against an experienced veteran here, landing a direct hit is great!" Kuro encouraged.

This time I got flustered at praise.

 _Kuro knows how to recover from his embarrassment quickly, which is a good trait, but..._

Kuro began chuckling slightly.

"I meant every word I just said, but consider that my revenge." He told me.

 _It gives him a chance to counterattack._

I cleared the growing red in my cheeks.

"Joking aside, are you really okay with keeping Kai as your mentor?" I asked Kuro.

He seemed to think for a moment.

"I was able to face him during the applicants' tournament, even know my nerves were killing me, and I made it through today. I mean, I even had something close to a normal conversation with him, so I think I'll be fine." Kuro assured me. "Plus, Void member or not, Kai is strong, and as long as he's within the Nest, he's obligated to train me like any other mentor. This is a huge opportunity to get stronger, and I don't think I should waste it." I listened to Kuro and then smiled.

 _He really is determined…_

"Sounds good then, but remember, if something starts to bother you regarding the whole situation you have yourself in, let me know." Kuro turned and looked at me after I said that. "After all, we can understand each other better than anyone else can, so we can rely on one another if we need to!"

Kuro smiled.

"Of course. Don't forget the same goes for you. I feel like you've been the one encouraging me since we met, but if you need help too, I'll be here."

I smiled back at Kuro after he said that.

 _I couldn't have rammed into a better pokemon that day..._

* * *

 **Aven**

…..

…...

 _I wonder how long it'll take…._

I flew to the top of the Nest's main building, ready to launch the biggest fire blast I can into the sky as a signal.

 _For them to get here…_

* * *

Hello readers!

Sorry for the slightly shorter chapter than usual, but if I continued from here, then this chapter would be too long for its own good, so I decided to cut it before that happened.

Once again, thank you all for all of the reviews and PMs I've received, it really means the world to me! (Don't care how cheesy that sounds, it's true)

Also, about 900 people have seen this… And that is amazing and equally nerve wracking at the same time, so hopefully that doesn't affect me too much!

See you next chapter!


	10. The first trial

**Naru**

My body felt a bit sore from the day prior, as Shard may have been a pleasant person to interact with, she still tossed me around quite a bit. The soreness was nothing compared to the pain I felt during the applicant's tournament, so after a little bit, I barely felt it. I know my soreness was far less severe than Kuro's though, as he not only had his muscles aching, but still had quite a few cuts and bruises. After a few minutes, he seemed fine, but the injuries were still visible to everyone.

I was standing in the main lobby of the Nest, waiting to go on the first mission I would be experiencing at the Nest. We had been given a mission by our boss as opposed to choosing one for ourselves. She apparently did this for everyone until they failed their first mission. The purpose of this was to make sure pokemon didn't take missions that they couldn't handle, as some missions are fairly dangerous, and choice of a mission that is above your level can be very bad for you. You can get severely injured, or even die while in the field.

Luckily, our first mission was just a simple delivery mission. We were to deliver a parcel of some kind to a small camp of pokemon not to far away from the Nest. I'm not sure what exactly its purpose was, but maybe we'll find out when we get there.

Kuro was currently gathering supplies for our trip. It wasn't particularly long, but there's no point in taking risks when going out in the field. There was actually a small store that was connected to one if the buildings that we didn't explore. This was where we were supposed to buy food for our living space, as well as various supplies for when we go out on missions. It was a very convenient place to have at the Nest, as we did need supplies.

 _Maybe I should have given him my bag as well…_

Ignoring my poor planning, I looked around the lobby, not really having anything to do in the meantime of waiting. As I was looking around, I saw a pokemon that I had seen the day prior, and I had a question regarding them. For this reason, I approached Vero.

"Hey, Vero!" I greeted, and she turned towards me.

"Oh, you're that Glaceon who was with the Froslass." Vero seemed to think for a second.

"Naru, right?" I nodded my head.

"Nice to formally meet you! I wouldn't count that interaction yesterday as a meeting."

"Yeah... " Vero shivered slightly, remembering the events from yesterday.

"By the way, why weren't you with your mentor? I would think everyone would still be with them at that time."

"I actually don't have a mentor yet." Vero told me, confusing me. "Apparently my mentor was supposed to be a female Umbreon named Luna, but she left the Nest without a word, and none of the leaders know where she went." Vero explained.

"Oh, that's strange, I wonder if that Umbreon and Kuro's mentor are the only dark leaders as of now…" I was going to say more, but I made a connection in my mind.

 _Kuro said he was attacked by an Absol in the form of Kai, a Flygon that we also know is here now, and a female Umbreon… That wouldn't happen to be the same one that was supposed to be Vero's mentor… Would it?_

"Kuro is your Umbreon friend, right? Vero asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts. "If I'm not mistaken, he ranked second overall out of all of the recruits, who is his mentor?"

"His mentor is an Absol named Kai, the same one he actually beat during the applicant's tournament." I told her. "If he's the only other dark leader, I wonder if you'll end up with him too."

Vero shook her head. "I had the same thought after my mentor didn't show, but according to our boss, she doesn't want to put more than on pokemon with one mentor, other than the exception of the fact they only have one electric leader." Vero explained. "Because of this, they're holding out for Luna to come back. Until then, I don't have a mentor, and I just try to self-train myself, but I don't really know what I need to improve on." Vero said, sighing and putting a claw behind her head.

"Sounds like a struggle." I told her. "I wonder… Maybe Kuro can help you!" I exclaimed. "When he gets here, I wonder if I can ask him to relay what he's learned from his Kai onto you! Although we still don't know what exactly you need to improve on, it's better than nothing, right?" I asked her.

"If it wouldn't be a hassle, that would be great." Vero said.

"Awesome! I'll make sure to ask him when he gets here, do you have a mission to go on for today?" Vero shook her head.

"I wanted to look for my partner and see if he had a mission, but it seems he already left to who knows where. Nothing says we have to go on missions with our partners, so I guess he just left by himself." Vero told me.

"Really? Who's your partner?"

"Lucas, a Gabite. We were the last two besides you and Kuro who didn't choose someone as a partner, so we ended up being assigned with one another. I've tried talking to him, but he clearly wants no conversation with me, or anyone for that matter. I suppose that's the reason he left earlier on his own." Vero said.

"Strange…" I said. "Well, since you're on your own, want to come with Kuro and I?" I asked her.

"If you don't mind, then sure, I'll come." Vero responded.

"Great! Now we just need to wait for Kuro." I turned my head to the exit of the lobby. "I wonder why he's taking so long…"

* * *

 **Kuro**

 _I really need to learn my way around here…_

I was walking slightly away from the may shops that I had just come from after buying a lot of supplies for Naru and I. I really loved the shop area, it was very colorful. It was a long path, and on both sides of it were many stands, all selling different things. From food, to medical supplies, to accessories. There were also small poles lining the path, all of which being topped off with a variety of plants, which once again include multiple poisonous plants. Each stand was a different color, and the path itself was white, matching that of the symbol that everyone got branded to their bodies. The entire area was pleasing to the eye, and I was glad it was, because we would most likely be visiting that place a lot.

I was walking away from the area, and away from the Nest in general because there was one thing the store that sold medical supplies didn't have. That would be bandages, and because we aren't traveling with an Audino, I thought that bandages were a very important thing to have in case one of us got into an unwelcomed battle and suffered from bleeding wounds. When I was told that there were no bandages in the shop itself, I was told about an old wooden shack of sorts that used to be a part of the Nest, but for some reason it's been ignored for a substantial amount of time. According to the shop owner, there was a large amount of bandages in said shack that I could take for our mission.

I didn't want to keep Naru waiting for too long, but this shack was about a mile away from the main part of the Nest, also behind a small hill in the endless field of green. After making it to the top of the hill, I saw a small wooden shack in the distance, which was my destination.

Once I arrived right in front of the shack, I noticed that the door… Well… There was not a door. There was a doorframe, but the door was absent. The shack also had quite a few holes in the side of it, and I could tell this place was losing a battle against time. I entered the shack, instantly coughing a bit due to the inhalation of dust.

I took a look around, and found many different supplies scattered all over the place. I didn't recognize a lot of what I was looking at, but I did see a few rolls of bandages against a corner near a staircase that I didn't notice when I walked in. I picked up the bandages in my maw and put them in the bag I had hanging over my shoulder. I coughed a bit more, my body clearly not being used to the mass amounts of dust that were collected in this place. I was just about to leave the place, but I heard some shuffling from up the staircase, which prompted me to stop. I looked towards the staircase, wondering what I had just heard.

I slowly walked up the stairs, hearing each of them creak with age every time I took another step. Once I made it to the top, I noticed that most of the second floor was empty, other than a small pile of soft-looking objects in the corner, the floor was empty. There wasn't even any dust on the floor up here, as if someone had been walking around it. However, I didn't see anyone who would be here, removing the dust that flooded this old-looking shack.

That is, until I looked at the top of the small pile of soft objects in the corner.

On top of all of the objects in the corner, was a Vulpix. However, this Vulpix didn't have the complexion of a normal one, its fur was white, almost exactly like Naru's, and their eyes were also almost picture perfect when compared to Naru's. The Vulpix noticed me, and then their eyes widened, and they whimpered and put their head down in the makeshift bed.

Their voice sounded female, and she also sounded like a very young pokemon, or, at least, a decent bit younger than me. She obviously seemed scared, and I wanted to approach her and say that I wasn't a threat, but I also didn't want to seem threatening by coming close to her. While looking at her, I noticed that she was very thin, as if she hadn't been eating. Because of her age, she was also a lot smaller than me, despite my lower than average size.

 _I don't know if I should approach her… But she looks like she needs help…_

Not knowing exactly what to do, I took the bag I had stocked with all of our supplies, and I took out a large amount of the food I had just bought. I quickly went back down to the first floor and found clean objects to create a makeshift bowl. Finding something similar to a bowl down there that wasn't filthy or covered in dust wasn't exactly fun. I placed a lot of berries and apples inside of the bowl. I then slowly went back up the stairs, and gently pushed the bowl towards her with my head, but she didn't peek her head up.

 _So she's still terrified…_

After pushing the bowl halfway across the room, I went back down the stairs and left the shack. I hoped that me not being there would calm her down enough to bring her head up and eat the food I left there. Other than that, there wasn't anything I could do without seeming threatening. For this reason, I started to walk away from the shack, and then I got struck with a realization.

 _How long have I been here..?_

Realizing that Naru has been waiting in the main lobby of the Nest for who knows how long now, I sprinted back to the shops as fast as I could to replenish our food supplies, and I then sprinted to the main lobby.

* * *

 **Kage**

I was barely still standing in front of my mentor, who hadn't let Blitz or myself leave since yesterday. We were suppose to go on a mission today, but I was told by Xen, my mentor, that neither of us were ready. Because of this, both of us have been sparring with our mentor for almost a full day, set aside three hours of sleep. Since yesterday, Blitz and I had been knocked over, and blasted enough times to make it hard for both of us to stand.

"If you give up now, you'll never improve!" Xen shouted at us, before rushing in again.

He launched off a hyper beam, and somehow managed to split it off into two beams, one aiming at me, the other at Blitz. Both of us managed to barely dodge it, and we cooperatively rushed at Xen, but he swiftly shot behind Blitz, knocking him down with a smash to the head. He then rushed at me, and I entered a state of focus. I dodged his first three swipes at me, and managed to land a counterattack with one of my claws. However, Xen didn't let up, and I ended up getting tossed to the side, and then hit by a hyper beam. While flying through the air and feeling the wind rush through my ears, I noticed that I didn't even come close to piercing his skin with my claws.

 _What is his skin made of?_

I collided with the ground, landing not too far away from Blitz.

"Kage…. What have we gotten ourselves into…?" Blitz asked me with pain in his voice.

"Something we're not getting out of…." I responded, before finally fainting.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I returned to Naru with the newly replenished supplies in hand. I wasn't expecting Vero to be coming with us, but I didn't really have any complaints. I split the supplies into both Naru and I's bags. It made it easier for us to carry with the weight on both of them halved.

The three of us were walking in a field of endless green, with the occasional sight of a forest or body of water in the distance. We had a map that told us we were going in the right direction, but it was further out than I thought. Apparently, if we go on missions that are more than ten miles away, then we'll be flown there by a resident member of the Nest. This camp was exactly ten miles away, so we were walking the distance.

Naru was engaging in a conversation with Vero, but I was mostly focusing on the map, making sure we didn't get lost. I made out a few words that they were saying, but most of it went unheard by me.

When I joined with the two of them, I mentioned that something kept me held up, but I didn't mention the Vulpix that was in the shack where I got the bandages. I knew I could trust Naru with the information, but that might encourage her to try and talk to the Vulpix, and considering how terrified she was when I went there, I didn't want to make her feel threatened again.

 _Then again… Their fur and eyes looked almost identical… Maybe that would bring some comfort..?_

I wondered if it would be a better idea to lead Naru to the Vulpix, but I didn't have much of a chance to think about it.

"Oh! Right! Kuro, can I ask you something?" Naru asked, bringing my attention from the map.

"Sure, what is it?"

"You see, Vero doesn't have a mentor, her original mentor left the Nest without saying anything and the only other dark type leader is Kai." Naru explained. "Would you be willing to teach Vero what Kai is teaching you?"

 _I wonder who Vero's mentor was supposed to be…_

"I can try to explain what he's taught me so far, but I don't fully get it myself, so it may be a bit convoluted. If you're okay with that, then I have no problem teaching you what he's taught me." I told Vero.

"That would be great, thank you!" Vero said with an appreciative tone.

I nodded my head and looked back down at the map, noticing that we were about a mile away from our destination. Upon this realization, I came up with an idea, and a way for me to start teaching Vero a few things.

"We're about a mile away from the camp." I told them. "Something Kai has definitely been focusing on with me over the first day was increasing my stamina, not letting up for a second while we sparred for hours on end. If you want to start working on what he's taught me, I think we should run the rest of the way without stopping." I proposed.

Vero seemed to consider it for a second and then nodded her head. Naru also looked rather interested.

"Sounds like a plan Kuro!" Naru said, before sprinting ahead of both of us.

"Wait! You don't have the map!" I yelled before sighing.

Vero chuckled slightly behind me.

 _Well, Guess I have to get ahead of her…_

I began to sprint forward, glancing back to make sure Vero was following me, which she was. After a short while of sprinting, both Vero and I caught up to Naru, and I passed her.

"You shouldn't run ahead without the map you know…" I told her.

"You two caught up, so it doesn't really matter, does it?" She told me.

I sighed once more, and the three of us ran forward, not stopping. I was surprised that, by the time I had run a half mile, I wasn't tired in the slightest. I had been sprinting at almost full speed the whole time, and not once did I find it enticing to stop. I could tell Naru and Vero were slowing down a bit, so I also slowed down, but none of us stopped.

 _Is this really a result of one day of training with Kai..?_

The three of us continued running, and I felt the wind rushing through my fur as I sprinted. I still didn't feel any tiredness in my muscles, and I was starting to surprise myself. We soon saw a small collection of buildings that we were rapidly approaching. Each of them looked small, and they were all made of dark brown wood.

 _That must be our destination._

I stopped myself from sprinting and came to a very quick halt. Naru almost smacked into me from behind, and Vero stopped slightly to the side of her. I still wasn't tired in the slightest, but I could tell that Naru and Vero were both winded.

"It looks like this is it." I said. "Wonder what kind of camp it is…" I observed all of the buildings, same height, same color, same everything. There were a few wooden posts around the outside of the capm, but I couldn't really see a purpose in them, so maybe they were for decoration. I was about to start to walk further into it, but was stopped by a panting Naru.

"Kuro…" Naru started talking in between breaths. "How… aren't you… tired…?"

"I told you, Kai focused mainly on improving my stamina, after what I was put through with him yesterday, that run was nothing." I told her. Honestly, while I didn't feel fatigued, my muscles still had a distinct ache from yesterday, but it wasn't anything too distracting.

The three of us began to walk towards the camp, and we started to notice a lot of younger pokemon there, along with a few adults. Two of the adults were a Wigglytuff and a Blissey, and the other one was a rather old-looking Blastoise.

Among them, there were fifteen kids, seven of them being different species, and the other eight all being Eevees. I found it a little bit odd that the majority of the children were all Eevees, but I more or less accepted it and moved on.

Once we made it right outside of the perimeter of the camp, we were approached by the Blissey, and I took out my bag and prepared the parcel that we were to deliver.

"Hello there!" The Blissey, sounding male, greeted us. "I'm guessing by the symbols you hold, you are the Ravens that are delivering our package."

"That's right, do you need anything else, or is that all?" I asked, passing the package to the Blissey with my teeth. The package itself was just a small box, I couldn't really think of what would be in there, but it wasn't my place to meddle.

"I think that's it, thank you!" The Blissey exclaimed, and I nodded my head with a small smile in response. I turned around and was about to walk back to Vero and Naru, who were both stretching their legs after the sprint, however, as I approached them, I was blocked by two of the Eevees who were present at the camp.

"Hey, what's your name?" One of them asked me. I tilted my head in slight confusion, wondering why this child was asking me for my name. I didn't know if it was normal to just walk up to others and ask for their name, so for a second, I wasn't quite sure how to react. Not wanting to upset said child, I responded with a small smile.

"My name is Kuro, what's yours?" I asked. It was a little bit awkward that the child was not very much shorter than me, but I ignored it.

"Shine! What did it feel like to evolve? I want to be an Umbreon, what's it like?" Shine asked me.

 _How do I describe what it feels like to evolve…_ It didn't really have a specific feeling. If I remembered correctly, I think I had just knocked out a feral before feeling a change in my body, specifically the size of my legs. I then fell flat on my face because my body's shape had changed, but they didn't need to know that.

"I didn't even know I was evolving when it happened." I told him, and a third Eevee came to listen. "What I did feel was my body change shape. When you evolve, you'll have to get used to walking in your new body, but once you do, you'll feel stronger, and maybe look at things differently." I told him. "As for what it feels like to be an Umbreon, not too much different from being an Eevee, but you like the night a lot more, and you can see a lot better in the dark." I explained.

A few more Eevees came over to me, and it wasn't long before I had eight Eevees, all standing in front of me, eyeing me. I'd be lying if I said it made me feel comfortable. I think Naru noticed this, because soon after I had a small group of Eevees in front of me, she walked up beside me and smiled at all of them.

Right after that, the two of us were barraged with questions. Most of the questions revolved around us evolving, and what it felt like, and then there were a few about who we were, where we came from, and what we were doing here. Naru and I tried to answer all of the Eevees smoothly, but eventually, neither of us could keep up with the eight energetic Eevees.

Vero was a few feet behind us, laughing at the situation. She knew that the both of us were having trouble keeping up with them. However, after enough time passed, all of the questions were given answers, and by the time we were done, they didn't have any more questions to ask.

 _How long have we been answering these…_

I kept a smile up in front of the Eevees the whole time, as did Naru. Both of us wanted to give off a positive impression to these children. I didn't expect to be answering questions like this when we got here, I was honestly expecting to deliver the parcel and leave, but since we had nothing else to do, I didn't really mind entertaining these children. If anything, I welcomed their curiosity. I had the same curiosity when I was younger, and since I constantly flooded my parents with questions, I saw nothing wrong with being the one who was flooded with questions.

After Naru and I answered the next wave, the Wigglytuff walked over to us.

"I see our children have taken an interest in you two." She said. "It's been awhile since their interest has been piqued like this."

"What exactly is this camp?" I asked.

"It's a place for pokemon who don't have anywhere to live come. Since a lot of pokemon don't have that situation, and since a lot of pokemon seem to make it in the wild, we only have fifteen here, and we've had these fifteen for about a year now." She explained. "The other seven pokemon we have here were just found nearby, but the eight Eevees were all found taking cover from a storm in a small cove. It seems like none of them are related in any way, but they were all together when we found them."

 _So this place is an orphanage…_

"Are you and the Blissey the 'parents' of this place?" I asked.

"Yes, we watch over these children. They also have a grandfather of sorts, an old Blastoise that actually used to battle a lot, but has grown weary from age." She explained.

"I see." I paused for a second, observing the eight Eevees, all jumping around each other. I also looked at the other group of children, doing something similar to mach-battling, but making sure not to hurt each other. "Well, looking at the energy in all of these kids, I'd say you're doing a good job!" I told her, smiling at the groups of children in front of me.

I looked at the area surrounding the camp, and it looked just like the outside of the Nest did. Nothing but endless green plains. It really was a peaceful sight. It made you feel like this place was safe, and nothing can touch it. It made this place feel exactly as it was supposed to.

If only everything didn't need to lose its shine.

I felt a very large gust of wind, much larger than any wind should have blown in an area like this. It made me curious, so I turned my head towards the sky, expecting to see nothing but blue peace.

Instead, I saw a cloud of purple mist.

The mist surrounded the entire camp, and then engulfed the interior. There was nothing we could do to stop ourselves from inhaling it. Because of this, I tried to move myself close to a group of the children, ready to protect them from whatever is making the mist.

I looked around to see that Naru and Vero had both done the same thing as me, and we were ready to defend if necessary.

Sadly, everyone passed out before it came to that.

* * *

 **Aven**

… _._

… _._

 _I wonder how the agents are doing..?_

Luna had sent me a message, a message saying she wanted to try out a new invention that she wanted to distribute to her admins. It was a sleeping gas of sorts, and it could cover an enormous area. It could be contained in a small spherical object, almost looking like a mega stone. As soon as this object was shattered, a large cloud of the gas would engulf the area under it, and put any pokemon aside to sleep.

She wanted to test how many pokemon could be put to sleep at once using it, as well as make sure it didn't kill them, because she wanted to use them for torture. Of course, if her test subjects died, she wouldn't care, so she had one of our admins test it on a camp. I had no idea what this camp's purpose was, but it was sure to be a good testing ground.

I looked upwards, seeing the blue sky and the few clouds that accompanied it.

In order to test the invention, the admins needed to be notified of the general direction it was in. Because of this, I needed to provide a signal as to what direction the camp was in. Thanks to Luna, Kai and I, the Void knew the location of the Nest. Of course, we aren't stupid enough to attack it head on, because, as much as I hate to admit it, they had the upper hand on us when it came to members. We had the numbers, but they had the quality. Each one of the Nest's members had exceptional battling talent, and our lower leveled recruits could be mistaken for any pokemon in civilization. Looking at the Nest's recruits, it's pretty obvious we're outmatched.

It's for this reason that, if our test subjects survive the sleeping gas, then we're bringing them back to the Void. Something interesting about us is that our organization isn't on the ground. Our organization is one giant airship. We fly high enough to not be noticed, after all, the thing is probably bigger than the entirety of the Nest, so anyone would pick up on it if they simply looked up had we not flown high enough in the sky. Luna said she wants to build an underground part of the Void as a steady base of operations, but that was a project that would probably take us another few months to complete.

 _But once we do… The Void will just be that much stronger._

* * *

 **Kuro**

I opened my eyes and immediately jumped up, and looked around me. I felt my bag swing against my body, and I felt the softness of my scarf. I shot my head all around the room that I found myself in. Because of my panicked state, I also tripped and banged my head on the floor, which felt like metal. Shaking my head out of the sudden impact, I stood back up on all fours and looked around the room I found myself trapped in.

It was fully metallic, and the metal itself was black. The metal looked darker than my fur, and it almost looked like I was walking on nothing when I stood up. I looked to the corner of the rectangular room, and I saw a small pile of five Eevees, still unconscious. I was about to be relieved that the children were safe, but while looking around the room one more time, I realized that it was very possible that they weren't.

The only ones in the room were the five Eevees, and myself.

I felt a wave of panic start to build up inside me.

 _Where are the other children? Where is that Blissey? Where is the Wigglytuff? The elderly Blastoise? Naru? Vero? Where is everyone?_

I took in a large breath, trying to calm down.

 _Okay… Calm down and think… This place must be part of a bigger area, but where is the exit?_

I walked against the wall of the room, holding my paw against it as I walked. I felt like I made circles around the room, but after a while, I felt a small indentation. I felt the area out some more, and realized that this was most likely a door. Although, it did seem thin. The door looked as if it was the only one in the room, but because of the color contrast between nothing but black metal, the thing looked invisible.

 _Here's the exit to the room. Now, what exactly is this place? Before that, who even took us here? Who dropped that mist onto the camp that knocked us out? Who-_

I felt the floor below me shake, and I was almost thrown off balance. I ended up spinning in a few circles with my paws in order not to fall down again. After a few seconds of shaking, the floor steadied itself. I had felt this shaking before. It was almost like… Turbulence. I knew the feeling from the first day I arrived at the Nest.

 _Wait… Are we in an aircraft..?_

It certainly was a possibility, but I didn't want to assume it yet. I still didn't know anything about our situation, or about how to get out of it.

My thinking was cut off by the sound of whimpering.

I turned my head behind me, and I saw the five Eevees, all shaking in the corner. I hadn't heard them wake up, but I immediately hoped that it was after I almost panicked. I decided to assume it was the turbulence that woke them up, and I then slowly walked over to them. They were all panicked, and I had to try my best to calm them down.

I walked to the group, and I crouched down to their eye-level.

"Okay, I need all of you to calm down." I said softly. "I'll make sure everyone is safe, but for now, I need you to be brave. I know you don't know where you are, or what you're doing here, but I need you to stay strong."

I got a separate nod from each of the Eevees, and the whimpering stopped.

"Now, I'll tell you what I think we need to do. I can break down that door, but I don't know what's on the other side." I raised my paw and pointed at the door. "If you can't see it, then it's okay, but after I break it, you all need to stay behind me, and we're going to slowly make our way through this place. I promise that I'll do anything I need to in order to keep all of you safe."

I was met again by many nods from the Eevees. I nodded back, and turned around, preparing myself to blast down the door.

 _This is probably going to attract some attention…_

I pushed down all of my nerves, despite being scared out of my mind. I knew that I needed to act strong for each of these Eevees, if I didn't, then none of them would feel any safety. I was a Raven now, this meant that I needed to be composed, all that mattered was that the children got out safe, no matter what I need to do to make it happen.

 _Okay… Let's do this!_

I charged up energy in my maw, and I launched a hyper beam at the door in front of me. The metal door blew away, making a loud crash with the metal ground below it. On the other side of the door, was a long hallway of sorts, with more metal doors lining the walls, only this metal was a bright, silver color, unlike the black metal in the room we were in. The sudden color intake made me flinch, and it took me a second to adjust my eyes to it. There weren't windows of any kind, so I couldn't confirm where we were, but that wasn't what needed to be on my mind right now.

I signaled for the Eevees to follow me out of the room slowly, and they all did. We walked down the hallway in a single file line, me leading the group by a little bit. I poked my head around the corner, and I saw two pokemon. One was Blaziken, the other a Lucario. They seemed to be stopped in the middle of the hallway, looking in the opposite direction of us. Apparently, they didn't hear the loud sound of metal falling on metal, but I wasn't about to question it. At first, I didn't know what these pokemon were, or what they were doing, but that all changed when I observed them more closely.

On both of their backs, almost in the same spot, was a symbol.

It was a dark circle, surrounding a bipedal hand.

These two pokemon were part of the Void.

I instantly put a paw to my mouth and backed up around the corner a small amount. I was putting all of my focus into keeping my breathing steady, and not showing my unease to the group of Eevees behind me.

 _We're somewhere the Void controls!? How did we get here? And how am I going to get these Eevees out of here!?_

I silenced my thoughts, knowing that with these hallways, there really was only one thing I could do for the situation.

I walked right in front of the group following me and lowered my head to whisper.

"I need all of you to stay right here, okay?" I asked. "I'll be right back, I just need to clear the way."

All of the Eevees nodded, and I went back to the corner and peeked my head out again. Both the Lucario and the Blaziken were conversing with each other, and I knew if I was going to make a move, it would be now.

I built up some energy in my maw, and got ready.

 _Remember, you promised each of these children that you would get them out of here… Don't break it, Kuro!_

I jumped around the corner and shot a shadow ball at both the Blaziken and Lucario, hitting both of them in the back. I immediately ran closer to them, ready to follow up. As I was approaching, the Blaiken launched a blast of fire at me, which I easily side-stepped. As soon as I was going to try and get close to the Blaziken, the Lucario got up and rushed at me, trying to slam their silver shining claws into me. I managed to dodge each one, and also landed a small slash on the side of their face. Soon after, the Blaziken rushed me, ready to hit me with a blaze kick. I prepared to dodge, but as soon as I did, The Lucario shot an aura sphere at me, directly connecting. I smacked into the metal wall, feeling pain course through my body. The ache from my sore muscles roared at me, but I tried my best to ignore it. The Lucario tried to follow up, bearing claws ready to slash my throat. I barely moved my head down in time, and I then took a claw, and brought it to the Lucario's leg. I managed to cut them, but it wasn't deep enough to impair their movement. I was quickly pushed by both of them, to which I shot a dark pulse, hitting the Blaiken. They didn't take too much damage, but they were slowed, which was good enough. I used the opportunity to get out of the corner I found myself in, and ran back to the middle of the hallway. As soon as I did however, the Lucario and Blaziken went on either side of me, pinching me. I looked between them, not really knowing what they were going to do. Immediately, the Blaziken shot off a stream of flames, which I barely avoided. The Lucario then shot off a dragon pulse, which I also barely dodged. However, because I dodged, I found myself stuck in between the flames and the dragon pulse. The Blaiken jumped up and straight at me, the Lucario doing the same afterwards.

Both of them were flying at me, and I knew I would be finished if they both made contact. I was stuck in the middle of two attacks, and there were two more on the way, and even one of them hitting would put me in a situation I couldn't get out of.

 _I have one chance… I need to make it count!_

As my two assailants were quickly approaching, I looked within my body, searching for an instinct.

I took that instinct and grabbed onto it.

I launched two large tendrils from my back, which seemed to take both of the pokemon off-guard. I then tried to control the tendrils' movement. I felt resistance, almost like the massive things had minds of their own, but I was able to quickly gain control of them. I made one wrap around each of the two pokemon, and then I slammed the two together, their heads making direct contact with one another. I might have even heard a skull crack. I tossed both of them aside, and then investigated the damage I did. I was a serious jolt in my body when I saw a thick red liquid flowing out from their heads, but I was happy to realized that I didn't just become a killer.

Both the Lucario and Blaziken were unconscious, breathing, but unconscious.

I sighed in relief, and was about to return to the Eevees that were waiting for me, but I immediately fell onto the floor, and covered my mouth. I felt an extremely intense pain surge throughout my body, the side-effect from using that ability. I felt my entire body take in the pain, but I made sure not to yell, not even to grunt in pain. I didn't want any of the Eevees to have doubts of them making it out of here.

I felt the pain very slowly leave my body, and after a few minutes of withdrawal and deep breaths, I walked back to the group of Eevees.

"Okay, we need to keep going before those two wake up, so let's go." I said, trying my best to keep a soft tone, but the battle I had just won was making that difficult.

Regardless, the Eevees nodded, and we walked down the hallway, not knowing what was coming next.

* * *

 **Naru**

I woke up in a slight panic, but I quickly composed myself when I realized the situation. I looked around myself only to see a large, metal room. While looking around the black-colored metal room, I saw the adult Blissey, and the old Blastoise, along with three Eevees, a Darumaka, and a Shinx. As much as I had wished to see Kuro and Vero in the room with me, it quickly became apparent that they weren't.

I looked to see the adults attempt to calm the children down, to which they were slowly succeeding. In the meantime, I tried to think about where we were.

 _Let's see… That mist obviously knocked all of us out, and then we were taken to wherever this place is. But who set the mist off in the first place? And who took us here?_

I was going to think about it more, but then a door on the side of the room that I didn't notice opened, and outside there was a Heatmor.

The Heatmor was looking at all of us with a murderous glint.

"Now that you're all awake, everyone be nice and orderly and follow me out into this hallway. I promise I won't hurt you." He said.

I looked closely at the Heatmor, and it didn't take me long to realize that he was dangerous. Ignoring the glint he had in his eyes, he also had a symbol on his chest, and it was a symbol that I recognized.

The symbol of the Void.

I mentally panicked a little bit, realizing that we had been dragged into a place where the Void inhabits, but then another thought occurred to me.

 _No one here other than Me, Kuro, and Vero knows what the symbol of the Void looks like._

 _They may not see this pokemon as a threat._

I saw the two adults begin to approach him, but before either of them could get close to him, I sent a wave of ice along the ground, and the Heatmor jumped out of the way, and backed up into the hallway.

He seemed to closely observe me for a second, and then cracked a smile.

"I see. You're a damn Raven, aren't you?" He asked. "I hate dealing with you, so I'm just going to kill you, how does that sound?"

I shuddered slightly at the Heatmor in front of me, but I knew that I needed make sure everyone got out of here safely, so I stood in front of everyone, and then exited into the hallway. I stood across from the Heatmor, waiting for him to do something. I felt terror begin to seep into my mind, as I was about to have to battle a Void member. They were going to try and kill me. Regardless of this thought, I didn't dare let it show on my face, instead, I stood strongly in front of the children and the two adults.

 _I'm… I'm ready for this!_

The first thing he did was send a stream of flames along the ground, to which I jumped over, landing close to him. I unsheathed my claws and tried to pierce him, but he barely managed to dodge out of the way before shooting off more flames. I side-stepped the next wave of flames, and shot an ice beam, managing to connect with him. He didn't even flinch, but damage wasn't what the attack was meant for. The Heatmor shot out more flames, and I ducked under them, getting in close and biting down on one of the Heatmor's arms with an ice fang. This time, I heard a grunt in pain, and he shook me off of his arm. I managed to draw blood with that attack, and also further lowered his body temperature. I didn't really like the metalic taste of blood in my mouth, but I ignored it. He ran in close to me, attempting to grab me, but I was too fast for him to land his attack, so I countered by shooting another ice beam into his back. I heard another grunt, and then he turned around, and launched a hyper beam straight at me. It really caught me off guard, but I managed to barely react, and roll towards him, dodging the beam by a centimeter. I then landed a point blank water pulse straight to the Heatmor's stomach, causing him to slam against the wall with a loud crash. His body slumped against the wall, unconscious.

I took in a large breath, and then released it. I felt my adrenaline lower, and my heart rate turned to normal. Without letting myself get too comfortable with my victory, I walked back into the room I started in, and looked at the children and the two adults.

"We should probably get out of here, if we keep getting attacked, it will just make our situation more difficult to deal with." I told them.

"Also, you may have brought some attention here with that battle, so leaving now is the best course of action." The elderly Blastoise agreed with me.

I nodded my head, and walked out into the hallway, with everyone else behind me. I went around each corner carefully, ready for whatever may be waiting for me. My mind was on one thing and one thing only.

 _Find everyone and leave._

* * *

 **Vero**

I was being led down a hallway, my hands tied. Behind me was a Wigglytuff, a Turtwig, a Snivy, a Ralts, a Shieldon, and a Pidgey. We all woke up in a large metal room, and soon after, we were led out by a Metagross. This Metagross also had the symbol of the Void on them, which made me think we were in a place owned by them. There was also a bit of what felt like turbulence earlier, so we may be on an aircraft of some sort. I can't be sure, but that seemed like the most likely scenario. I definitely had a lot of fear begin to creep itself into my mind, but I tried to have this not be recognized by anyone. I was supposed to be the protector here, I couldn't look fearful.

The Metagross had been silently leading us for a while now, but I heard a lot of steps on the metal ground, it sounded like someone was sprinting. Soon after, an Espeon came around the corner and ran up to the Metagross.

"We have a problem, groups one and three have escaped further into the ship." The Espeon said. "Both groups seem to have a pokemon taking out any of our members that try and stop them."

"What? We captured mostly children, what pokemon could possibly be taking out Void members?" The Metagross asked, aggravated. I wondered about what the Espeon was saying, but after searching my thoughts for a bit, the answer was obvious.

"One pokemon in each group were Ravens." The Espeon said. "There is an Umbreon that has taken out the two that were to guard group one, but he also seems to have taken out a number of members that he keeps running into. In group three, there is a Glaceon that took out the one guarding group three's cell, but also took out one other member near there." The Espeon explained.

 _Naru and Kuro… How are you taking out these Void members? How did you get out in the first place?_

I decided not to question how exactly Naru and Kuro got to the position they're in now, but I was happy about it. Any damage to the Void that is done helps, plus, this means that the other camp members are still okay. If we got transported in three groups, Kuro in group one, Naru in group three, and this must be group two. Judging by the number of pokemon in this group, I can assume that all of the camp members are safe with the two of them.

I looked back to the Metagross to see them with a rather disturbed expression. It seemed like he didn't know how to react to the other groups escaping. I watched as the Espeon ran away, and decided that it was time for me to make a move.

I turned one of my claws to the rope that had my hands tied, and sliced it in one, quick motion. My hands were free, but the Metagross didn't know that, and I kept walking in line with the rest of the pokemon. We were about to turn a corner, and I decided to move up a little bit as quietly as I could. I slowly inched my way forward, and once I was close enough, I had to act.

I put my hand on the back of the Metagross. They tried to react, but before they could do anything, my hand started to glow, and the Metagross was instantly put to sleep. There was a loud crashing sound, as the Metagross' body collided with the silver metal under all of our feet. I took in a breath, letting some of the stress I had building up in my body soothe out.

Afterwards, I went to each of the children and cut their restraints with my claws, and finally, I cut the restraints on the Wigglytuff.

"How did you do that?" She asked me, right after her restraints were cut.

"Not important right now, what we need to do is-" I bolted around the corner, ready to slash whoever was at the other side.

As soon as I did, I was met with a claw held close to my neck.

I looked down to see a Glaceon that I recognized.

"Vero! You're okay!" Naru exclaimed before signaling that it was clear for the other pokemon with her.

The three adults all went to each other and so did all of the children.

"I'm glad you got out, I heard that you took out your guard, as well as another member." I told her. Naru nodded. "I also heard that Kuro is raising a lot of hell here. He not only took out the two guards outside of where he was taken, but he has apparently taken down a number of other members."

"Really? That means that Kuro is okay too!" Naru exclaimed excitedly. "Or at least, for now. We need to regroup as soon as we can!" I nodded in response to Naru. I appreciated her positive attitude on the current situation we found ourselves in. It really did raise myconfidence.

I looked back at the group of children, who were all happy to be together again, that is, all but the three Eevees present in the group.

 _The other ones must be with Kuro…_

As soon as Naru and I were going to tell everyone else we needed to move, we were greeted by someone we weren't expecting.

We were greeted by a leader of the Nest, a Flygon.

I felt a strong sense of relief, and I almost gave a sigh to signal it, but then I thought that something about this situation was weird, and Naru's aggressive expression was only adding to that feeling.

 _Why is a leader of the Nest here? And why does he look like he's about to battle us..?_

I looked over to Naru who seemed to increase her intense glare of anger set on the Flygon.

 _Does she know why he's here..?_

"You!" She shouted. "What are you doing here!?"

"Why are you asking me that?" He responded. "I'm a part of the Nest, aren't I? What makes you think I'm here to do anything other than rescue you? That is, unless a certain Umbreon told you otherwise." He spat the last part.

 _Wait, what is he talking about?_

"I know you two were with one another before you applied, and I know that little bastard of an Umbreon holds in his emotions, so I assumed that you may not know about me, but your outburst is confirmation that you do." He said.

Naru hardened her glare, and I was still left very confused. What was he talking about? I couldn't imagine why a Nest leader was speaking like this, to other Ravens no less. It was also apparent that Naru knew something about him, which confused me even more.

"Just so you know, this is the Void's base of operations. We were trying to recruit new members in our own way, but I wasn't expecting three Ravens to come with our potential recruits." He said. "Another thing you should know, we have a hunting team for times where there are Ravens running around in our base, and it consists of two pokemon. Myself, Aven the Flygon, and Luna the Umbreon." I jumped at the mention of the second name. "It seems like I found groups two and three… I wonder what surprise little Kuro has waiting for him." He said, putting on a devious grin.

 _Wait… So my intended mentor… Is a Void member? So is this Flygon? How are they both leaders at the Nest as well? Why does Naru have such an obvious hatred for them? What involvement do they have with Kuro?_

 _What is going on!?_

"I knew it… So Luna is 'that' Umbreon…" Naru mumbled. "Wait… Are you saying that Luna is hunting Kuro?"

"Of course. After all, I clearly have you two stuck here, and we can't just have that little bastard go around and incapacitate more members of the Void, can we?" Aven began to slightly fly inside of the hallway. "It's my job to kill this group, it's her job to kill that group. Although, after she sees the little Umbreon, she may want to do something other than kill him."

Naru growled at Aven, but he just looked amused.

"If you think you can do anything to me in a battle, then let me stop you right there." He said. "I far outmatch you, and I'd like to keep this craft as clean as possible. For these reasons, let me let you in on a little fact. Any part of this ship can detach and reattach itself. It's one of the most unique things about it. I think I'll give you a demonstration." Aven pulled out a small controller, and pressed a few buttons.

Soon after, the wall of the hallway behind us flew off, and somehow attached itself to a higher part of the ship. The wind rapidly flowing in from behind us made me flinch, and I put one of my claws up over my head to block some of it.

"Now, I hate to cut this meeting short, but I have work to do." Aven sent a gigantic gust of wind from his wings, sending every single one of us flying out of the ship.

The wind hitting my face was almost painful. I looked down to see green plains, quickly approaching.

I panicked for a second,listening to the screams of all of the children, and the adults, it put me in a strange trance. The only ones not screaming were Naru and I, and for some reason, that broke something inside of me. I felt like, even know the situation looked hopeless, that I needed to fix it somehow. I knew I had the ability to do something, even if it would probably exhaust me. However, that didn't matter in the slightest.

 _Because… I'm a Raven… I have to protect everyone!_

I dove further ahead than the rest of the group and focused my illusion abilities. I had to enter a state in which I could safely land all fourteen of the pokemon falling behind me. I flashed a bunch of pokemon I've previously seen through my head, before deciding on one.

I took in a large breath, and changed the form of my body. I felt large wings expand from the center of my body, and I felt the rest of my composition change. MY midsection had greately increased in size, and I felt my legs and arms both expand. My color changed from red and black to blue and white. I had turned into a Salamence, and I quickly stopped myself from falling, catching each of the pokemon falling behind me.

I had to admit, it hurt when each of them made contact with my back, and the weight was exhausting me, but I knew I didn't have a choice. I swiftly flew downwards, but not fast enough to the point that I would toss anyone off of my back. I angled myself with the ground, and I waited until I felt my feet collided with the grass. As soon as I did, I Instantly changed forms back into a Zoroark, and fell over. Everyone has safely touched down, and I was hit with a wave of relief, followed by absolute exhaustion. I honestly felt like I couldn't move after that. Using illusions was already draining as is, but doing that while carrying a ton of weight on top of it completely drained me.

All of the pokemon looked at each other and conversed happily, as they survived a situation that would usually mean certain death. Everyone looked happy beyond belief.

That was, everyone but Naru.

Naru was just looking up at the sky, looking back at where we had just fallen from. Her expression wasn't one of relief, but one of worry.

She was worrying for Kuro.

Not only her, but the three Eevees that had also escaped with us were looking down, because they knew that five of their friends were still up there, most likely with Kuro.

All I could do is pray that he made it out with them.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I knocked a Floatzel on the ground, unconscious.

I was breathing very heavily, as this had been my ninth battle since arriving here. I had taken out the two guards outside of the room I woke up in, and since then, while guiding the five Eevees I was with, I ran into more and more void members around every corner. None of the battles were as difficult as the first one, as that was the only one in which I battled more than one pokemon, but each battle was still a challenge, and I was still battling Void members. Each one wore me out more and more, and I felt my movements beginning to get more sluggish, and I felt myself making more stupid mistakes. My aches continued to get worse, and I didn't know how much more my body could take before I outright collapsed. I knew I had to keep going though, so I kept trying to ignore my increasing pain.

I slowly walked back to the group of Eevees and signaled that they could follow me again. I had been going through hallway after hallway, all of which looking exactly the same. The only thing keeping me from thinking that I was going in circles was the fact that I've knocked out so many pokemon that I came to a realization that if there wasn't any unconscious pokemon, I hadn't been here.

I could tell that the Eevees were also getting more and more tense the longer we were in here. I don't blame them, as the same thing has been happening to me, and knowledge of my deterioration through the battles here didn't help.

I was preparing myself to run into another endless hallway, but when I got to the corner of the current hallway I was walking through, I found that it was a dead end.

And when I looked down, I found an open part of the floor, looking into a multi hundred thousand foot drop. The wind rushed loudly past me, and I knew that we had to turn around.

I backed up a few steps, and was about to tell the Eevees not to go over there, but instead, they all ran behind me, inches away from the gap.

It made me tense due to how close they were to the drop, but I was more worried about what made them run behind me in the first place. To find out, I turned my body around, wondering why exactly these children panicked.

I almost wish I hadn't turned around.

"What do we have here?" A vaguely familiar female voice spoke. "What's up with this? Are you actually trying to save pokemons' lives? What do you think you can do, Kuro?"

I looked into the blood-red eyes of an Umbreon.

It was an Umbreon I knew from the past.

It was an Umbreon I wished I would never have to see again.

I froze on the spot, unable to find my voice. I felt my body begin to tremble, regardless of wanting to keep up a confident facade.

"What's wrong Kuro? Why aren't you talking? I thought you had grown since I saw you last. I thought you managed to take out ten of my precious Void members. What's wrong with you now?"

I shook my head.

I tried to speak, despite the shaking in my legs. After some effort, I felt the lump in my throat slowly dissipate.

"W-Why do you remember…?" I asked. "Why do you even remember me!?" I yelled, getting slightly worked up at the sight of this Umbreon. I didn't want to frighten the kids behind me, but I couldn't control myself.

"How can I forget? The look of despair on your face that day is what saved your life you know. The look of despair you gave when Aven pinned you down, and then Kai and I got to have our fun." The Umbreon licked her lips. "I don't think I've actually introduced myself yet. My name is Luna, and I am the leader of the Void."

 _She's the leader of the whole organization?_

"You know, I never thought you would grow after that day." Luna took a step forward. "I thought you were going to kill yourself, and if you had the will to live, I thought you were just going to run in the forest and get killed by some feral pokemon." Luna gave me a malicious grin. "Yet, here you are, knocking out my minions, as a Raven. When I was watching you during the Applicant's' tournament, there was no doubt in my mind that you were growing, that you have been growing since the day you decided to leave your past behind. I have to say, I'm impressed, but you know, Aven and I are starting to think of you as a threat."

"A-A threat..?" I repeated.

"Of course! If today is any example, then I think you can actually do some damage to the Void, and that would be not very beneficial to my plans. For this reason, I've decided I'm going to capture you today." She bluntly said.

"C-Capture? Not K-Kill?"

"Why would I kill you when I can catch you, right here, and torture you?" She licked her claw. "Sadly I missed the chance with that Glaceon and Zoroark, Aven kind of already blew them off of the ship."

 _Wait… Naru and Vero were… Thrown off of the ship..?_

 _There's no way…_

 _He didn't actually…._

 _Kill them… Right?_

I found myself shaking more harshly than before. I felt the lump in my throat come back, and I took in deep breaths.

 _Naru… And… Vero…_

I found it hard to control my emotions, or even stand. All the fire I had inside of me while fighting through here… She blew it out with one sentence. I could barely keep my eyes open, and just as I was about to give in to the temptation of falling to the ground, I cleared my mind. I tried to stop my shaking, and took in one large breath, not out of panic, but out of clarity.

 _Naru and Vero..._

 _Aren't dead._

I thought about Naru, and my mind instantly went to her hopeful attitude. She wouldn't give up no matter what was thrown at her. That, and Vero is a Zoroark, meaning she has illusion abilities. Illusions were one of the strongest things any pokemon could make use of, and because of this, I came to a realization.

A fall isn't enough to kill those two.

I stopped myself from shaking and faced Luna.

 _I can't hide in fear from her. I need to face her._

 _I can't break my promise to these Eevees._

 _I'm getting out of here alive, and so are all of them._

"Hey, what has you all quiet..?" Luna asked, taking a few steps towards me. "You know you can't do anything to me even if you tried, so have you stopped resisting..?"

"No." I said, finding strength in my voice. "I'm not letting you capture me. And I'm not letting you take any of these children either."

Luna looked at me with an empty glare.

"What kind of crap are you spewing at me right now? You know if you try to battle me, you'll lose in a matter of seconds, especially in your condition."

"I never said I'd beat you." I told her firmly. "I told you that you're not capturing us." I took a step back, putting myself about an inch away from the children behind me. "I'm not listening to you, I refuse to be controlled by you, and I won't give in to you!"

With that, I launched a shadow ball at the ground in front of me, blowing myself and all five Eevees straight off of the ship.

 _Consider this my first act against you, Luna._

I felt the intense wind collide with my face while looking down, but I couldn't waste any time.

I quickly dove in front of all five Eevees, who were screaming their lungs out. The sound pained my ears, but I ignored it and did what I had to do.

I gathered them all close to me, and I made it so my back was facing the ground.

I searched throughout my body, and formed two large tendrils once again, but this time, I made them bigger than usual. I'm not sure how I knew how to do that, but now wasn't the time to decipher the riddles of how this ability worked. I used one to wrap all five of the Eevees in, and I then held them close to my chest.

I then used the other one to spread across my back, and then bulge out, to act as a cushion of sorts for the fall.

We got closer and closer to the ground with each passing second, until we smashed into it, creating a large dirt cloud.

I felt the impact of the fall through the tendril I made, and this sent an unbelievable ache throughout my body. I didn't suppress my groan of pain, and I looked in front of me to see five Eevees, all alive on the ground in front of me. They looked confused as to what exactly just happened, but all that I felt was immense relief.

Right after that, came the immense pain.

I, once again, held myself back from screaming, despite the pain being so intense. Instead, I put a paw to my mouth, and just layed on my back. I had the recoil from my tendrils, as well as the fall build up into what just might have been the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. I had never fought the urge to scream so much, but in the end, I won the fight. After a minute of withdrawal, I felt the pain start to lessen, and it eventually was replaced by the ache of my previous injuries, plus the impact I just took, but compared to the recoil I just felt, I knew I could deal with it.

Once the pain faded, I still didn't move. This had to be a record for exhaustion. I'm pretty sure I could move, but I don't have any guarantees.

After about five minutes of lying down motionless, I heard voices not too far away.

I managed to turn my head, and I saw ten children, all running towards the five Eevees that fell with me.

They all jumped on each other out of joy, clearly happy to be reunited.

I couldn't help myself from smiling, not only because I saw the sight of these children, but also because I knew what was going to follow.

I turned my head, and saw Naru running at me.

"Kuro! You're okay!" She exclaimed, and then leaned down to nuzzle the side of my head despite me still lying on the ground. I felt her the fur of her face rub up against my cheek, and it probably would have embarrassed me had the situation been different. However, as of now, I just felt comfort within it.

I still could barely move, so I just closed my eyes and let myself lean into Naru's embrace.

"I was so worried! How did you manage to fall down here safely?" She asked me.

"I… Used a move Kai taught me." I answered. "It really… Is a useful technique…"

Naru smiled at me and helped me up. When I was actually standing, I saw Vero conversing with the adults of the camp. I saw her look over in my direction and raise her claw, signaling that she was glad I was okay. I assumed that she was discussing what exactly was going to happen after all of them got escorted back to their camp.

 _Thanks for saving everyone, Vero._

With a few feet of walking, we noticed that I actually touched down not too far away from where we were picked up in the first place, which was good. This way, we knew where we were.

After walking to the camp again, I felt myself able to walk on my own, most likely because of the new moonlight. Turns out, we spent a very long time in that giant craft.

The camp owners asked us if we wanted to stay with them for the night, but all three of us said we had the energy to walk back, so after being thanked countless times by everyone at the camp, we made our way back to the Nest.

* * *

Hello readers!

This is actually how I was planning on ending the previous chapter, but figured it would be way too long, especially considering that this is my longest chapter, and that's after the cut from the other one.

We also hit one-thousand views on this story! Let me say, that is amazing. Honestly never thought I would have so many people look at something I produced, but I'm happy about it!

Finally, thank everyone who has left me constructive criticism, kind PMs, etc. All of it makes me a very happy person and I really appreciate it!

See you next chapter!


	11. A child in need

**Kai**

I took in a large breath as I was sitting in my usual training field. I didn't have anyone to train at the moment, apparently Kuro was abducted by Void members, along with two other Ravens. More to my surprise, the Umbreon managed to take out about ten members of the Void.

When I heard this, I was baffled. Yes, I knew Kuro was a strong pokemon, and I knew that I had been further helping him by training him, but I didn't think he was at the level to contend with members of the Void. Well, maybe some newer Void members who don't know what they're doing, but no the ones he actually took out. I wasn't complaining, but it was certainly unexpected. He wasn't even the only one, a Glaceon by the name of Naru had also taken down a few Void members, as well as mouth off to one of the admins of the Void, but I wasn't sure as to who. I knew this Glaceon was friends with Kuro, as whenever I see one of them outside of training, the other is always there. Lastly, there is a Zoroark named Vero who also knocked out a Void member, and apparently she also saved herself, Naru, and a group a children by using her illusion abilities. Not only that, but Kuro used his dark tendrils to save himself along with five other children.

I wasn't given explicit details yet, but I assume they were saved from falling out of the Void's airship. If they were taken by the Void, then it was probable that they were all taken onto that thing. After all, it's bigger than the entirety of the Nest, so it's not like they needed to bring them somewhere else. I wondered if any of them encountered Aven or Luna. Both of them went back to the Void, and Luna may not come back to the Nest. I think the leader of the Nest was starting to suspect Luna. She had mentioned to Aven that the Greninja was starting to ask her weird questions, as well as closely monitor her. For these reasons, she left to the Void, and I don't know if she had plans to come back. In order to not kick up any more suspicion, Aven is definitely going to come back. He said he had a reason he wanted to stay for longer, but I was ignorant to it. The point was, Aven and I were staying at the Nest, and Luna was staying at the and Void.

Because today was supposed to be a training day, and since Kuro was resting off injuries, I had pretty much nothing to do. I was waiting for nothing in particular in the training field I would meet with Kuro, and nothing happened.

Until Aven came into my view.

I tensed slightly, hoping that Aven wasn't about to ask me to do something for the Void, as I was never pleased with doing so. Regardless of me wanting to converse with him or not, he flew over and landed in front of me.

"Kai," Him speaking to me always raised my nerves. "I have to relay orders from Luna to you. Your trainee, Kuro, you need to stop training him. You can make it seem like you're helping, but don't actually make him any stronger, don't teach him new techniques, don't do anything for him."

This intrigued me. What happened that prompted Luna to not want Kuro to get stronger? I know him just taking out Void members isn't enough to cause that.

"What happened that warranted that?" I asked him.

"It was something that Luna sensed. The Umbreon acted defiant. Luna was caught off-guard by his attitude, and his attitude could lead to him being a threat." Aven told me. "In the end, her reasoning doesn't matter. You need to obey. If you don't, you know what happens."

I nodded my head and shuddered. I watched as Aven flew away, and I sighed.

However, I knew what I was going to do.

I knew from experience that disobeying orders from Luna meant torture. When I say torture, I mean literal torture. I would be put into painful positions and get cut, bruised, and broken, healed, and then the cycle would restart. I knew how much it made me suffer, and after I disobeyed Luna for the second time, I hadn't done it again. I knew what I was getting myself into, and I knew the consequences for my actions.

But I was still going to disobey.

I knew that I didn't stand a chance against Luna or Aven, and I knew no amount of training was going to do that. I could get stronger, but not nearly fast enough to stop Aven and Luna from doing something. If I got too strong, they would just kill me.

 _But if I could improve Kuro's strength…_

It was no secret that there was something about Kuro that Luna feared. There was something I saw in Kuro from the first time I saw him battle in the applicant's tournament. That something, was how quickly he improves. This was further proved by my first training session with him. After we had been sparring for a bit, I noticed him getting better. I noticed his hits starting to hurt me more, and I noticed him getting faster, and getting less tired after breaks. It was like he was improving his abilities at an unnatural rate. For this reason, I could see him getting stronger, and I could tell that Luna noticed this as well. I don't know how, but she knew.

 _It's almost like she knew Kuro before their recent meeting…_

Regardless of the punishment I receive, I wasn't going to stop training Kuro until he was stronger than me. For all I know, he could be the last chance we have to stop the Void from doing anything drastic.

* * *

 **Kuro**

After getting back to the Nest from being abducted by the Void, I figured out how much damage I really took. Once I felt myself absorb the moonlight, I thought my injuries were somewhat minor, but when I actually got back to the Nest and Naru and I returned to our room, I basically collapsed. Naru ended up getting worried and making an Audino come to our room to heal me. Although, I feel like it was raw exhaustion that was having an effect on me, rather than the injuries themselves.

The next day, Naru, Vero and I were praised by member and leader alike. We had taken out members of the Void, and also managed to save all of the camp's children and adults while being behind enemy lines. This warranted a lot of attention from a lot of pokemon we didn't know. It was all very flustering, and most of it was appreciative, but it still created a great amount of discomfort to me.

Regardless, I was happy with the outcome of what happened that day. It made for one hell of a first mission, that's for sure. None of our missions since then have had any unexpected twists. I welcomed this, and I'm sure everyone else who went on missions with us agreed.

It's been about a month since that day, and I've absolutely adored our life at the Nest. We were in a schedule of alternating training days and going on missions, and neither have been boring. I feel myself getting stronger with every training session, and each one of our missions have gone off easily.

Most of the missions that I go on are just with Naru, but we occasionally get Vero and Kage to come with us. Our training days and mission days don't always match up, and sometimes Naru and I had a desync with our schedules, and one of us needs to go on a mission alone. Since nothing unpredictable has happened since our first mission, it hasn't been a problem to go alone, it just makes it feel like it takes longer.

Kage and Vero are also partners now, due to our boss thinking it was a good idea to pair up Lucas and Blitz. I'm not sure why exactly, but that's the way it is now. Vero and Kage seem to work well together, and I don't know how well Blitz and Lucas work, but I hope it wasn't a mistake to change partnerships like that.

Also, everyday since I found that Vulpix in the shack a mile away from the Nest, I had brought her more food, and washed the bowl that she uses. She doesn't tremble or whimper as much as she did when I first started bringing food there, but if I try to get too close, she still gets very frightened. For this reason, I still haven't told anyone about her.

I was on my way to feed her again, and I realized that the mile-long path I take to get there every time was beginning to become muscle memory. It wasn't a very long path to begin with, but I knew it by heart because of the past month.

I had just finished training with Kai, and I found myself still full of energy. For a while after I trained, I was always tired and sore, but as of late, I really haven't been feeling bad afterward. I took it as a sign that I was improving, but according to Naru, her training still exhausts her, and I apparently have unnatural levels of stamina. She's not the only one who commented on my stamina, Vero and Kage both did as well, and I even got a comment about it from Xen, Kage's mentor, as well as Kai.

 _Is my stamina really so much higher than it should be..?_

I disregarded other pokemon's comments most of the time, but when I started getting them from leaders, I began to get intrigued. However, since I don't like thinking about strange things that make my head hurt, I just accepted the fact that I could run for miles without getting tired and moved on with my day.

I began to see the shack in the distance, and I kept going towards it at a steady pace. Every time I come here, I hoped that the Vulpix will be in a better mental state, and that she'll stop being terrified of me, but I can't really blame her. I wouldn't be the most comfortable with a random pokemon I don't know coming into where I live every day.

I got closer to the shack, and I was expecting for this to go just as it did any other day, but things couldn't be that simple.

While looking at the shack, I saw a rather old-looking Mr. Mime, going into the shack. Ordinarily, I wouldn't be too intrigued by this, but after looking at on of its hands, I sprinted towards the shack at full speed.

It had the symbol of the Void.

I made it to the door of the shack, only to see nobody there. I then heard a loud scream coming from the top floor, which made me practically jump up the stairs.

I looked across the top floor, and I saw the Void member standing inches away from the Vulpix, holding a very disturbing smile, all while she was whimpering with her head down.

I immediately ran behind the Mr. Mime, and sank my fangs into its shoulder. I heard a loud grunt of pain in response. I then tightened the grip of my jaw, and threw the Void member behind me, knocking him into the wall. I tasted the iron of crimson liquid in my mouth, but I tried my best to ignore it. The mime got up right after he made contact with the wooden floor behind me. He looked into my eyes and put a gloved hand to his chin before giving me an eerie smile.

"Why do you have to ruin my fun?" He asked with a sadistic tone. "That girl is mine you know." As soon as he finished that sentence, I heard the whimpering from the Vulpix behind me increase.

I gave him a glare and growled. Sadly, I wasn't a very intimidating pokemon, especially when considering my size, but I tried my best to sound threatening.

"You know, you shouldn't interrupt my work, it makes me very irritated." He rose his hands.

His hands started to glow and he formed a bright pink light within his hands. This took the form of a moonblast, which he shot off in my general direction. However, the blast wasn't directly aimed at me.

It was aimed at the Vulpix.

I jumped in front of the Vulpix, taking the moonblast head-on. The pink light made contact with the front of my head, but I stood my ground and didn't budge an inch. It was painful, I didn't take too kindly to fairy moves, but I managed to stand strongly in front of the Vulpix. After he realized that I tanked his attack, he gave me another smile.

"So you have some pain tolerance, huh?" The Mr. Mime spoke, before bringing his eyes to the side of my body. "Ah, you're a Raven. I hate all of you. You all ruin our fun." He cracked his knuckles. "Well, I just need to kill you, then I can have my fun with the girl. Just so you know, She won't be the first one today." He licked his lips, and I was instantly disgusted. I felt anger begin to cloud my thoughts, but I tried my best to not let it show.

"What is wrong with you!?" I spat. "Why do you Void members get such enjoyment out of this!? This is an innocent girl who has been living here for at least a month, maybe longer! She didn't do anything wrong, why do you feel the need to make things worse for everyone!?" I was starting to lose my control as my volume kept increasing.

"What can I say? It's just the way we are." He responded, making his face turn more serious. "Now, it's time for me to kill you."

He rose his hands again, this time, he looked like he was about to launch of a larger scale attack. Before he could do anything, I launched a dark pulse at his chest, knocking him into a wall and canceling his attack. He crashed through some of the wood that the wall was made of, but didn't quite break it. I immediately used the opportunity to turn around and run towards the Vulpix. Once I got close to her, I stopped running, and I crouched down to her eye-level.

I gave her a calm smile.

"I know you're scared," I said softly. "I'm sorry, but in order to keep you safe, I need to do this."

I extended two tendrils from my back, and I used one of them to pick up the Vulpix, and put her on my back. She was still whimpering and heavily shaking, but she held onto my back.

 _At least it looks like she's less scared of me than him..._

I then noticed the Mr. Mime begin to recover, so I quickly used my tendrils to break the wall of the shack and jump out of it. I kept one tendril on the Vulpix, making sure she didn't fall when I jumped. Once we hit the ground, I retracted my tendrils. I made care to not step on any of the sharper parts of the wooden wall I had just broken, as an injury to my legs or paws would prove to be quite the problem.

 _I can't lead a Void member to the Nest, so I need to shake him somewhere else…_

I began to sprint in the opposite direction of the Nest, and I felt the Vulpix's grip tighten. I was happy about this, because I did not want her to fly off of my back while running away from this creep.

I was running when I felt the pain from using my tendrils kick in. I let out a small grunt, hoping it was inaudible for the Vulpix on my back. I had gotten used to the pain over the past month, even if it never seemed to lessen, I've felt it enough times to not react to it as much. I was able to power through it now, and not have to grit my teeth and dig my claws into the ground in order to resist the pain.

I felt the air behind me change and then I changed my course of running, watching another moonblast slide past us.

 _All that's out here is endless green… I can't lose him here…_

I decided that I needed to run until I found somewhere that had something that wasn't endless plains. I turned my body around to scout out our pursuer, and I saw that he was on his way towards us, albeit slowly. I took another gander at my surroundings, still seeing nothing but a plain of grass that went on for miles. Because of this, I knew what I needed to do.

 _It's times like this i'm thankful for my unnatural stamina._

I began to sprint down the endless wave of green, taking care to not lose my bearings. After sprinting for another two miles, I saw a small collection of trees in the distance. I immediately changed my course to run towards them, entering the small forest. The trees weren't very large, and had rather thin trunks, so I wasn't able to use much cover, but it was much better than the plains of grass I've been running though. Once inside, I strafed through many trees, getting deeper into the forest. Once we were far enough into it, I stopped running, and stood behind one of the trees to catch my breath. I took in a few gulps of air, and while I could run more if I needed to, I finally felt some tiredness creeping into my muscles. Because of this, I stood still, waiting in the forest, waiting to see if my evasion worked.

 _He didn't seem too fast, but he must have some way to chase us if he's keeping up. The question is, how exactly is he moving?_

After about thirty minutes of waiting, I decided that trying to change locations would be a good idea. If we sat in one place too long, then, assuming we were still being chased, we would just get hunted down.

I felt the Vulpix shaking on my back, and she has been since I got to the shack, however, I did notice that it was less intense than when we first started running, so she was calming down a little bit. I was about to sigh in slight relief, but I heard the snapping of many branches of the trees to my west side, and I had to jump out of the way, nearly launching he Vulpix off of my back.

I looked to my left, and I saw what I thought I was done with.

"You really are starting to piss me off you know," The Mr. Mime said. "Tell you what, it's been awhile since someone actually managed to leave my line of sight without being killed or captured." He cracked his knuckles, and cleared his throat. "Because you managed to do this, let me introduce myself. My name is Rage, and I'm an admin at the Void, which means I have quite a bit of authority there. Just so you know, admins are quite a bit better in battle than most standard members, I would say it equates to one of your Nest leaders." After he finished, I felt my own fear start to creep in.

 _He's an admin!? We need to get out of here, I don't know if I can contend with an admin of the Void…_

"I know you want to escape me in order to not endanger the life of that Vulpix on your back, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen." He rose his hands. "I'm killing you, and I'm taking my prize!"

He shot two energy balls out of his hands, each one hitting trees on either side of me. The trees began to fall, and I ran in the opposite direction of Rage. I realized that we were going deeper into the forest, and I didn't want to get myself lost. I had nowhere to run to if I wanted to get this Vulpix out of here.

 _Guess I don't really have a choice…_

I turned around, ready to face Rage. As soon as he entered my line of sight, I extended tendrils out of the side of my body instead of my back, and I used one to cover the Vulpix on my back. I used the other one to deflect a moonblast that was heading towards us. Instead of running away, I sprinted at Rage. I seemed to catch him off guard by doing this, and I hit him with a shadow ball. He got sent back slightly, but he quickly retaliated by launching a thunderbolt at us. I managed to dodge it, and the tendril I had covering the Vulpix stopped her from getting shocked at all. Rage was now right in front of me, and his hands began to glow again, and I braced myself. He hit me with a moonblast point-blank. This time, I flew back a few feet, but I made sure to not land on my back and risk squashing the Vulpix. This attack hurt a lot more than the previous one, and I had to focus more on guarding the Vulpix then blocking out the pain. Before Rage could hit me with yet another attack, I closed the distance between us and plunged one of my claws into the same shoulder I bit earlier. I heard a much louder grunt than last time, and more crimson liquid began to seep out of the wound that I made. Rage tried to hit me with an energy ball, but I jumped back and hit the ground in front of him with a dark pulse, creating a large dirt cloud. I tightened my grip on the Vulpix with my tendril, and I rushed Rage, hitting him in the stomach with an iron tail. Rage flew back quite a distance, knocking into a few trees on the way back before slamming into the ground.

I looked at how far back I sent him, and I saw an opportunity.

I completely turned my body around, and sprinted in the other direction as fast as I could. I kept my hold on the Vulpix, not wanting to risk her falling off. As soon as we got out of the forest, an idea popped into my head in order to finally get away from Rage.

I extended the second tendril I had out from my body, and decided to put something I've been practicing with Kai to good use.

I rose the tendril in the air, and with as much force as I could, I slammed the tendril into the ground behind me, propelling me forward at a very fast speed. As soon as my paws began to touch the ground, I smashed my tendril on the ground once more, sending me further. To be honest, it began to hurt a bit the more I did this, thanks to the nerves in my tendrils, but that wasn't important right now. I repeated this over and over again, traveling a very large distance in a very short amount of time.

After a few minutes, we passed the shack we started at, but I kept going further, not wanting Rage to get any wind of our location. I felt the ache from my tendrils enter the center of my body, and I bit my lip.

 _Come on… Just a little more… Block out the pain!_

After we traveled another half-mile, I retracted the tendril I was using to slam against the ground before walking towards a large rock that was close to us. I removed the tendril off of my back, prompting the Vulpix to jump off once she didn't see any danger around us. I sat down next to the rock, exhausted.

The Vulpix stood a few inches away from me. I wanted to say something to her, but the pain from using my tendrils kicked in, and it was a lot worse than usual.

I grunted in pain, and jammed one of my claws into the ground while gritting my teeth. The pain would have hit a plateau by now, but it just kept rising. My legs were twitching slightly, and it took everything I had not to let out a scream right in front of an already shaken Vulpix. The ache that I received from my method of travel didn't help with the pain either.

 _Using my tendrils for that long isn't a good idea…_

After a minute or two, the pain calmed down, I took in a large breath, and my body stopped being tense. I leaned against the gray rock, and briefly shut my eyes. However, something I wasn't expecting happened right after I did.

"A-Are you o-okay?" I turned my head in the direction of the voice I just heard.

The Vulpix actually spoke. Even though she did, when I opened my eyes and looked at her, she still looked scared, but I didn't know if she was scared of me, or by the entire situation we just had ourselves in. Regardless, I tried my best to kick the exhausted look off of my face and gave a small smile.

"I'm okay." I told her. "Just a bit tired. What about you? How are you holding up?"

I-I'll be okay." She said. "I-Is that s-scary pokemon gone?"

I made my smile grow a bit, hoping to help the situation.

"Yes, we got away from him." I replied softly. "It took some running, but we got away. Thank you for being brave and cooperating with me, it would have been a lot harder if you didn't." In response, the Vulpix shook her head back and forth rapidly.

"N-No! I-I should be thanking you! Y-You saved me, a-and you've been bringing me f-food. A-All I did was follow your l-lead." She told me. "T-Thank you!" She bowed her head.

I just smiled again.

"It's not a problem. You needed help, so I helped you." I told her. "Speaking of which…" I swung my bag around in front of me with a turn of my head and I took out the usual bowl that I gave her, as well as poured in a bunch of berries. After dumping the berries into the bowl, I pushed it to her. "These are for you. I was supposed to give them to you earlier, but that pokemon had other plans."

"T-Thank you!" She nodded her head appreciatively, starting to eat the berries.

After that, we sat down next to the rock for quite a while. The Vulpix was eating, and I was just resting my muscles. I pushed myself farther than I have in a while, not through battling, but using my tendrils for so long. Not only did it physically exhaust me, but the aftermath was the worst pain I've felt in a very long time.

 _Well, I found out that the move I've been practicing for a long while works, but I shouldn't do that too often, the pain can really affect me if I do it too much…_

I looked up at the sky, and realized that the sun had started setting. It didn't really surprise me, as I had finished my training a bit after noon, and who knows how long this has all taken…

The Vulpix had finished eating, and I put the bowl back into my bag. The Vulpix climbed onto my back again, and I started to walk to the Nest. I was ready to be back after these few hours of stress.

Once we arrived there, I noticed that she had actually fallen asleep on my back, as I could tell from the light breathing. I walked to Naru and I's room, ignoring the questioning stares I got from many Raven on the way there, and opened the door. When I entered, I gently put the Vulpix on my bed, and took my scarf off, draping it over her like a blanket.

Naru wasn't back yet, she went on a mission with Vero and Kage today, and I couldn't come because I had to train with Kai. I went over to the wall and sat down, leaning against it and letting out a large sigh. I glanced at the Vulpix sleeping in my bed, and then a thought occurred to me.

 _How am I going to explain all of this to Naru..?_

* * *

Hello readers!

Another kind of short chapter because of the same reason as the last short chapter, if I continued, the thing will be like fifteen thousand words, and that's a bit too large for one chapter in my opinion.

Also… Is it bad if I haven't thought of a name for the Vulpix yet..? I've known that I was going to put this Vulpix in, and I knew exactly how, I just never thought up a name, other than one that I may or may not use next chapter. If you guys have any suggestions, let me know, it's probably better than what I have planned. :p

Finally, thank you for all of the reviews, PMs, etc. It helps me out and makes me very happy!

See you next chapter!


	12. A new member

**Naru**

Kage, Vero and I were all walking back from making a delivery to a small family in a town not too far away from the Nest. It wasn't far enough for us to be flown there, so we walked about nine miles to our destination. It was a semi-small town known as Spirit town. The houses there were all relatively small, but not quite as small as the one I used to live in. Other than the houses however, there wasn't much there. It was a very calm area, no roads or paths paved into the ground, just a grassy plain. There were many flowers growing all around the town, as well as the surrounding area that the pokemon of the town regulated and nurtured. There were also quite a few trees and bushes growing a variety of berries. It created a very colorful atmosphere, and I wished that Kuro was with us to see it. He had an obvious love for nature and peace, and I think this town would be a nice place for him to visit.

 _Maybe when we both get a free day I'll take him here…_

The family we made the delivery to had a Mother, Father, and one child. The Mother was a calm Togekiss, the Father was an energetic Roserade, and the child was a small Togepi. They were all very nice pokemon, and they even showed us around the town, as well as the surrounding area as thanks for the delivery. As I said before, it was filled with nature, and it was a very peaceful area. The entirety of the family also made the tour more lively, and overall, it was a great time, especially for what was supposed to be a quick delivery and then a return trip. I was happy that all of the missions I've been on aside from the first one have been simple, and have not given any unwelcome surprises. I was very thankful for this, as getting nabbed by the Void was not something I want to have happen to me on a normal basis.

Vero and Kage were wrapped up in a strange conversation, something to do with one of Vero's abilities. Speaking of which, I never knew how many different things Vero was able to do. Kuro started to teach her a few things that was taught to him by Kai, and she now knows how to control her 'dark energy' as Kai refers to it. One strange thing about her is that she doesn't seem to have any drawback from using her energy like Kuro does. When he taught her how to do it, he specifically mentioned that the side-effect he has is very, very annoying, and how he still hasn't fully coped with it after a month of practicing with it. Yet, when she used it for the first time, nothing. No drowsiness, no hunger, no sickness, no extreme pain like Kuro, just... nothing. She was able to use tendrils from her claws and arms with ease. For a while, Kuro was confused greatly by this, but then Vero explained another one of her abilities, and he had an idea of why she didn't have a drawback. Vero has the ability to knock people out without really battling them. She said she focuses a 'strange energy' in one of her paws, and she can transmit that into another pokemon, knocking them out, assuming they aren't another dark type.

As soon as Kuro heard this, he theorized that the energy she had been using to do that was the same energy that was used to bring out tendrils. Since she had been doing this for a very long time, she had already adapted to using the energy, so her body didn't violently react when she tried to bring it out like it does with Kuro. To be honest, I didn't entirely understand his explanation, but he couldn't think of anything else, so I just shrugged and went with it.

 _It's not like I can think of a better idea…_

The three of us made it back to the Nest, and Vero and Kage gave me a farewell, saying that they needed to go buy something from a shop. I nodded and said goodbye to both of them, before awkwardly standing in the middle of the Nest's plaza, wondering if there was anything else I could do. I very quickly came up blank and decided to return to Kuro and I's room. I figured I would eventually find something I could occupy my time here with when not on a mission, but it wasn't really an issue as of now other than boredom.

Once I made it up to the balcony our room was on, I looked over the railing, as I never really took in what exactly was right outside of our room. When I looked, I saw nothing but endless green. Our room was facing away from the rest of the Nest, which meant that we were facing nothing but miles of a peaceful field. I enjoyed this view, as it gave my mind a state of tranquility and peace. While I was looking over the fields of grass, I noticed a pokemon in the distance. It seemed to be walking in the opposite direction of the Nest, and it was too far away for me to discern what species it was. It looked like a spec of white and pink, but I dismissed it as a wild that was traveling somewhat close to the Nest. However, something was bothering me about it. I didn't know what it was, but that pokemon sent a strange feeling of… Dread? Anxiety? I didn't know how to describe it, but it wasn't a normal feeling for any pokemon in the wild. I felt a shiver go down my spine as I thought about it more, and I decided to cut my thoughts off and enter the room behind me.

Once I walked in, I was met with a usual sight. Kuro was sitting on the ground, against a wall, writing something in a notebook that he seemed to document a lot of events in. Apparently, he originally used it to keep track of everything he knew about the ones who attacked him when he was younger, but after a while, he started just using it to keep track of certain events that may be helpful to remember, such as when were taken on our first mission. I don't know how something like that would be forgotten, but better safe than sorry I suppose. I wondered when he would run out of paper in the thing, after all, he's been using it since we got here, and there wasn't an infinite number of sheets in between the two black covers, so he had to be close to running out of space.

Kuro looked up from his writing after I entered the room.

"Welcome back, Naru." He greeted me with a slight smile, which I returned.

"Hi Kuro! How was your training today?"

"Training went fine, as usual." He told me, but then changed his expression slightly. "Although, I had some interesting events happen to me after I finished training…"

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling slightly worried.

"Well…" He lifted his paw, pointing at his bed. "We may have a new roommate…" I looked over to where he was directing, and I didn't know how to react.

There was a very small Vulpix, asleep in Kuro's bed. It looked very young, and also had a color to it's fur that almost matched the lighter parts of mine. This was strange, as it was not the normal coloring for a Vulpix. I had heard previously that there is a far away place that contains pokemon of different coloring and outright different forms altogether than what most are used to and guessed that this Vulpix was one of those. However, I needed to ask questions, and as soon as I opened my mouth to do so, Kuro began to explain.

"This would be a young Vulpix that was actually hiding in one of the old storage areas of the Nest. I don't know how long she's been there, but I've actually been feeding her for quite a while now." Kuro explained, putting his paw back to the ground. "I would have said something to you, but she seemed to be extremely scared of any pokemon that came near her. I've been feeding her for the past month or so, and she still shivered in fear every time I came back. I didn't want to draw attention to her if that's how she was going to react to others." Kuro cast his gaze downwards. "Something happened that sort of forced me to break the schedule of feeding her that I had."

"What happened?" I simply asked.

"Well, after my training, I went over to the storage area, and the place she had been hiding for all this time in order to feed her like normal. Everything was going to be the same, but when I came close to the shack, I saw a rather suspicious looking pokemon enter, and that was followed by a scream from her." He pointed to the Vulpix once again. "As it turns out, the pokemon that entered the shack was an admin of the Void." Kuro said, prompting me to gasp.

"An Admin!?" I asked with a slightly panicked tone. "You ran into a pokemon like that!?" I barely knew anything about how the Void handled its members, but I knew they had to have some kind of recognition of those who are in an authoritative position, and I assumed that's what he was talking about.

"Yes I did." Kuro simply said. I was able to hear the tiredness in his voice. "He had some… Messed up plans for this Vulpix. So I tried my best to defend her from him. However, I knew from the first attack I was hit with that it wasn't likely I would win. Because of this, after managing to knock him down once, I used my tendrils to get the Vulpix out of there. I had to run to a forest first in order to not led him back to the Nest, and after distracting him there for a bit, I managed to get some distance between us, and used that opportunity to get away. Luckily, it looks like I pulled out by the skin of my teeth." Kuro finished explaining with a sigh.

"Wow… Sounds like an ordeal." I told him. I've only battled Void members once before, and it was on our first mission. The ones I fought were reasonably strong, and considering that Kuro lost all confidence in winning after one attack, I didn't want to think about the battle that he could have been forced into. "Either way, I'm glad you got out okay, and I'm glad you managed to rescue this Vulpix as well. Especially considering how young she is." I looked at Kuro and smiled. "Also you survived a fight with a Void admin, that has to be a sign of your progression."

Kuro chuckled and awkwardly twitched his ears, seemingly embarrassed at what I just said. This made me suppress a laugh. I looked over at the sleeping Vulpix. She was using Kuro's scarf as a blanket, which I assumed he draped over her after she fell asleep. I smiled at the thought, but I then noticed that the Vulpix was starting to stir. Kuro seemed to notice as well, and he put down his notebook and pen, walking a bit closer to her. He then turned his eyes to me.

"You may want to stand back a little bit, she may be afraid of you at first…" Kuro told me, and after listening to how she acted when he was bringing her food, I agreed, so I walked to the other end of the room. I probably didn't need to be that far away, but I didn't want to add to the discomfort that this Vulpix was most likely about to have.

After a minute or two of stirring, I saw the Vulpix slowly open her eyes. Once they were open, I saw her blue irises dart around the room a few times. She then looked very confused, and started to slightly shake. She looked scared, and I was about to say something to try and quell that, but then I saw saw Kuro slowly approach her, and he put on a soft smile.

"You don't need to be scared. Nobody here is going to hurt you." The Vulpix's eyes went to Kuro, and after a few seconds, I saw her shaking die down a bit. "I just took you back to where I live, the place you came from isn't safe anymore. Not only that, but it's almost fully destroyed, but this place isn't dangerous, so try to calm down." Kuro said, keeping a soft tone.

The Vulpix nodded her head, and it looked like she wasn't shaking at all anymore. It looked like she found comfort with Kuro, and I guessed that was because he just saved her from some psycho. Thinking about it more, I guess he did the same thing for me after we met...

"Now, I have someone that you should meet, and you don't need to be scared of her, she won't hurt you." Kuro looked at me and motioned to come closer with a slight swing of his neck, which I followed. "Also, I don't think I ever told you. My name is Kuro. This is Naru." He rose a paw and pointed at me, and I smiled at her. "Neither of us are going to hurt you. We both want you to be safe."

The Vulpix looked between Kuro and I a few times. She looked like she was observing us, as if checking if what Kuro was saying was true or not. She looked calm, which I was happy about. I didn't want this Vulpix to be scared around us, otherwise it would just make everything harder, for both us and her. Not to mention, her being calm meant that she was a least a little bit comfortable, and that was the most important thing at the moment.

"I-I'm okay." The Vulpix spoke. "I-I'm sorry if I was rude." I honestly wasn't expecting any speech from her, but I wasn't going to complain.

"You weren't rude at all." I told her, trying to have a tone as soft as Kuro's. "Anyone in your position would be scared, and considering what you've been through, I don't think you're being rude in the slightest."

"I agree." Kuro said after me. "You're acting naturally, no need to be sorry."

The Vulpix seemed slightly surprised by Kuro and I accepting her. You can see it in her facial expressions. It kind of reminded me of how I was surprised at Kuro not wanting to beat me to a pulp after I rammed into him the day I met him. Because of this connection. I wondered something.

 _What if… She had something similar happen to her..?_

I stopped thinking about possibilities of why she was in an old storage unit for the Nest, mainly because I had a feeling that we were going to find out fairly soon. As I thought this, Kuro confirmed my prediction.

"Why exactly did you spend so much time in that shack?" Right after Kuro asked, the Vulpix shuddered slightly. "You don't need to say anything if you don't want to, no pressure." He assured her.

She seemed to pause and think for a minute, considering whether not to tell us the reason or not. After that minute passed, she took a breath and sighed slightly.

"I-I was in there because o-of something weird that h-happened." She said, before pausing and slightly shivering once more. "I-I used to live far away from here. I-I don't remember who I lived with, b-but I know it was with someone else, and t-that it was on an island. W-We went on a boat to go somewhere else one day, b-but these weird pokemon were o-on the boat, and they started to tie up all of t-the passengers. O-One of them took me to a d-dark place. I-I didn't know w-what was happening, b-but they gave me some weird medicine. A-After that, I-I couldn't remember where I-I came from, or w-who I was with." The Vulpix was back to shuddering heavily. It looked like Kuro was about to ask her to stop, but then she kept talking. "I-I spent a long time in the d-dark room, and I-I didn't know what was happening. O-One day, they left a d-door open and I-I ran out of it. I kept r-running until I found that small shack. T-Three days later, you came and gave me f-food." She lifted her head to Kuro.

Kuro and I both nodded throughout her story, and I didn't know what to think. She had been taken away from whoever was most likely watching over her in the past. To top that off, she didn't even know who watched over her in the past because of… medicine? Whoever kidnapped her gave her something that took away her memories, and if that's the case, she could have been in this 'dark room' for longer than she thought. The thing that's bothering me about her story is that if she got her memories taken from her by this weird pokemon, then why does she still vaguely know things from before they were erased? It was like the memory erasure wasn't complete, it just took away her ability to recollect specifics about the events she does remember. Like how she can remember that she lived with one other pokemon, but can't remember who that pokemon is. To me, this was strange.

 _I can speculate who took her from the boat… It was most likely a Void member, but I don't know for absolute certainty. Maybe I can get a better idea if I knew the species of pokemon that took her…_

"Do you know what kind of pokemon took you to the dark room?" I asked, keeping my tone low.

"I-I don't know the name of i-it. The top half of its b-body was green, and the bottom was w-white. He had red eyes, but one of them looked like it was cut badly." She said, and I noticed Kuro shudder slightly, and watched his eyes widen for a split second. "He didn't have n-normal hands or paws, he had long b-blades."

After this was said, I knew exactly who had taken her, and my suspicions of why she was taken were cleared up.

 _She was taken by the Void… And I know what member of the Void took her, and Kuro knows too._

"Thank you for being brave and telling us that." Kuro said, before smiling at her. "On a lighter topic, what's your name?"

The Vulpix seemed to pause, not knowing what to say. This confused me at first, but then a possibility popped into my head.

"I-I don't remember my n-name." She simply answered.

I was afraid of that. Her memories are almost all lost, with the exception of the vague ideas she has about her past. The entire thing just made me sad. The fact that this girl can't be older than eleven and she has already been through something this traumatic without anything from the past to comfort her just upset me. I also started to draw parallels to Kuro and I, as the whole 'being on your own at a young age thing' seemed to be a constant in pokemon I've been meeting for a while.

Because of this, I knew that we couldn't leave her behind.

"Then, why don't we give you a name?" I suggested, and the Vulpix tilted her head.

"L-Like what?" She asked, and I went deep into thought. The thought of her not knowing her own name being confirmed for me only saddened me more, but this further motivated me to give her a name, one that fit her, and one that she would appreciate.

 _If only I could think of a name for my life…_

I was never good at thinking of names, for pokemon or inanimate objects, thinking of a name for something was not my strong suit, but above all, I wanted her to have a name that she liked, and one that would make her feel okay, or at least, slightly better about the sudden situation she found herself in without her memories.

The only problem was, I came up blank. I was about to scold myself for my lack of creativity, but my thoughts were interrupted.

"What about Shiro?" Kuro asked. Both the Vulpix and I looked at him with an intrigued look, making him flustered beyond belief. "O-Of course, only if you like it, it was just the first name that came to my head." Kuro looked like he was blushing, but the Vulpix looked ecstatic.

"T-That sounds great!" She said happily. It was the first time since she woke up that she not only smiled, but looked genuinely happy. The sight made me smile, and Kuro was too, despite the slight blush still on his face. However, I saw her mood slightly drop, confusing me. "I-I appreciate it, b-but won't I be a b-burden?" Her asking this made my heart crack, but Kuro didn't drop his smile, and he softly put a forepaw on her head.

"Of course you wouldn't be a burden." He said. "I know you haven't had the best experience since you lost your memory, and you've been put in a lot of danger since then, but as long as you're here, you'll be safe. Before, you were living in a very unsafe place, and what kind of pokemon would we be if we made you leave? The two of us will make sure you stay safe." Kuro took his paw off of her head. "You won't be a burden, we want you here, Shiro."

Shiro then smiled again, and then bowed her head down. It looked like she was holding back tears.

"T-Thank you!" She said, and wiped away one drop that left her eyelids.

I smiled at the sight. I also noticed how well Kuro can comfort others when they needed it. He did the same for me in the past, and in almost in the exact same manner after he helped me from that Gallade. It was a bit strange considering his experience with social situations before he came to the Nest. He knew exactly what to say a lot for someone who didn't speak to anyone outside of his family for the first sixteen years of his life. Yet, he still stays silent a majority of the time when he's in a conversation with more than one other pokemon. I wondered if it was an issue with his confidence. He was very much aware of his lack of experience in social situations compared to everyone else, and I think this results in him not having confidence in normal social situations. It really was a shame, because I think his social skills are a lot better than he gives himself credit for.

 _I wonder if I can do something to help him with that..?_

After some time passed, Shiro went back to sleep, realizing that it was getting fairly late. It looked like she was very tired, and I wasn't sure as to why, but after thinking about the day she must have had, it made sense to me. I looked over to the side of the room to see Kuro yawning, and also leaning against the wall. He was clearly exhausted from the events of earlier that day, but he didn't show it until now. I could see the fatigue in his eyes, and then a small thought occurred to me.

 _He… Doesn't have a bed for the time being… Does he?_

After realizing this, I noticed that Kuro was preparing himself to sleep while leaning against the wall, which didn't look too good for his back. He needed to train with Kai again tomorrow, so sleeping like that before his training probably wasn't the best idea. After thinking about this, one thought led to another, and I felt heat rush to my face. I shook my head out of my current thoughts, but I knew they would just continue to prevail in my mind until I said something.

"H-Hey, Kuro?" I said, stuttering a bit. Kuro picked his head up and looked at me. "A-Are you sure it's a good idea to sleep like that when you have to got to another training tomorrow?"

"Well, I sort of lent my bed away, so I'll deal with it until I convince someone to give us a third bed." Kuro responded.

"Y-Yeah, but it's probably not good for you, especially considering the wounds you usually come back with." I told him, preparing myself for giving Kuro a possible solution. "I-I think it w-would be better if you s-slept properly. Why don't you take my bed? I don't have anything straining to do tomorrow."

"I'm not going to take your bed from you just so I'm not sore while training." He told me. "I can deal with whatever soreness I have tomorrow."

I didn't think that was the best decision. It would definitely hamper his ability to train, and I didn't want to think about what Kai might do if Kuro doesn't perform properly. I knew next to nothing about how the two of them interacted while training, but I imagined that it wasn't always pleasant, considering who Kai was. Because of this, I really didn't want Kuro to show up tomorrow without being at his best. However, knowing that Kuro wasn't going to budge, I had a suggestion for him.

"T-Then, so Kai doesn't hassle you tomorrow," I stuttered out before pausing slightly. "W-Why don't we just share a bed for a night!?" I spouted really quickly, and louder than I intended.

I looked at Kuro after I embarrassingly spouted this, and noticed that his body stiffened slightly, making him slightly lean away from the wall and look at me. I saw a very flustered look in his face, and I didn't blame him after I said something so absurd. His ears twitched a few times, and for a second, I thought his rings flashed a small light.

"W-What?" He asked me. "U-Umm, are you sure you want to do something like that?"

"I-I just don't want Kai to hassle you when you train tomorrow. I-If you're sore, you might not perform as well, and K-Kai probably wouldn't take kindly to t-that." I told him, not being able to get rid of my stutter.

He seemed to process what I said, as if actually considering what Kai would do if he didn't perform.

"R-Regardless of what I say, you're not going to let me sleep without a bed, are you?" He asked me. I shook my head in his direction.

"I-It's bad for you, especially if you need to do something strenuous." I told him, focusing on getting rid of my stutter, but taking note of his at the same time.

"O-Okay then." Kuro responded, before getting up and yawning again.

I was already sitting on my bed, and Kuro walked over and then sat on it next to me. He was facing the other direction, towards the rest of the room, while I was facing the wall behind the bed. The two of us both laid down in the small bed, facing opposite directions in order to minimize the awkwardness of the situation. I felt Kuro's fur rub up against my back, which made my body heat up. It really didn't help that the bed was definitely only made for one pokemon. I doubted my ability to sleep like this, but I had to deal with it, regardless of the feeling I had right now. But, even know I felt a lot of awkwardness, I couldn't help but feel a tad comfortable at the same time. This led to a lot of conflicting thoughts in my head, but I brushed them away and told myself to stop thinking.

 _This was my idea after all… Maybe talking will make the situation easier to handle… I need to talk with Kuro about something anyway…_

"You could tell who was in the 'dark room' with Shiro, right?" I asked him, breaking the awkwardness a little bit.

"Yeah, I could." He responded, shifting slightly. Feeling his fur move against my back made my body warm up even more. "I should've known a threat wasn't enough to keep him away from actions like that." I heard him sigh. "But, there's something else about him being there that bothers me."

"What about it?" I asked him curiously.

"Shiro said that I came into the storage shack three days after she ended up there. Since she got there by running, the area she was being held in can't be too far away the Nest, maybe a few miles at most. However, Myriad was a large distance away, and that Gallade tried to attack you the day before we applied to join the Nest." I started to process what Kuro was wondering about. "If I found Shiro three days after she left, than that means that she saw the Gallade at least three days before our first mission. If I remember correctly, three days before our first mission was right after I gave him that eye wound during the night of the previous day. Because of this, I've been wondering how he could've traveled such a distance in that short amount of time. It really doesn't make sense to me."

I thought about what Kuro said, and he was right. The ride from Myriad to the Nest was definitely more than ten hours, and that was on a vehicle. That Gallade may have also had a fast way of travelling, but it would need to be faster than our method of travel. A lot faster. I didn't know how fast the aircraft we were on traveled, but I'd imagine that if we needed to get to the Nest in a reasonable amount of time, then it had to be pretty fast. Initially, I thought about the Void's ship, but the structure of that really didn't look like it favored speed, it reminded me more of a fortress than something used primarily for transportation. However, if it wasn't that, than how exactly did he get so far so quickly?

"I don't think it's a good idea to think about it too much right now, it's starting to make my head hurt." I told Kuro, who let out a small chuckle.

"I know what you mean. This combined with everything else we have to think about since arriving here has had my head spinning the whole time." I also chuckled a little bit. "We just need to be patient. I'm sure if we keep going the way we are, we'll get our questions all answered eventually, it'll just take some time and effort."

I agreed with what Kuro was saying and decided to ignore the rising questions in my head for now. It was true that the longer we stayed here, the more information we're getting about the subjects that rotate around our questions. The longer we kept on doing what we were doing, the more information that we would get, and the closer we would get to answering our questions. I wanted to further ask for Kuro's thoughts on the matter, and how close he has gotten to answering some of the questions in his head, but I heard that his breathing had become steady. I slightly sat up and looked at him to see him peacefully sleeping. I smiled at the sight, and felt my tiredness catch up with me as well. I went back to my original position and closed my eyes until I felt sleep pull me in.

* * *

 **Kage**

I was peacefully laying in my bed, happy to be resting after a day that wasn't spent getting beat up by my mentor. I definitely trained with Xen more than I went out of a mission of some kind. Because of this, I salvaged every day that I was able rest in my bed without feeling extremely sore. I thought I would start to hold a candle to Xen after training with him for long enough, but neither Blitz or myself have been able to even hit him consistently. I felt myself improving, but the difference between me and Xen was absurdly large, to the point that after a month of training with him almost every day, I still feel like he always does something new, and always gives Blitz and I a surprise. It frustrated me at some points, but because I was improving, I didn't feel the need to criticize his teaching. I sighed, knowing that I would be dealing with the same training tomorrow.

 _At least he actually lets us leave now…_

I wondered if everyone's mentors were as strong as Xen, as the information I have from others' about their mentors doesn't give me a chance to compare them to Xen in any way. Apparently, Naru's is strong enough to constantly knock her around, but she can actually damage her mentor after some time, something I couldn't do for my life. Vero didn't have a mentor, so I couldn't compare anything with her. Kuro said that he couldn't tell if he was really damaging his mentor at all. According to him, his mentor tried to make their training emulate a real battle as much as possible, and Kuro said he notices his mentor slowing down a bit towards the end of each of their sessions, but he doesn't know if it's from damage received, or just being tired after a long session of training. Either way, I could tell that everyone I talked to in the Nest was improving in their battling, which meant that we all have good mentors.

There was something that I noticed about Kuro though. I had been watching him help Vero train multiple times in the past due to her not having a mentor and Kuro being the same type as her. Whenever I see him train with someone else, or even by himself, I can't help but notice how quickly he's been improving since the battle we had in the finals of the applicants' tournament. His growth was almost unnatural, and I'm not the first one who had that thought. It was something that Naru mentioned to Vero and I, and apparently Kuro's mentor said the same thing to him at one point. I wondered if it was because of his mentor's training that he was growing at the rate he was, or if it was something to do with him.

 _I wonder if he has any idea why his improvement is so fast…_

Thinking so much about training brought up a few memories from before I joined the Nest. There were all memories of me battle training with others, preparing myself for whatever I had to face when I tried to come here. Thinking back, that training was probably the only reason why I managed to finish first in the applicant's' tournament. Had I not known how to engulf my fur in electricity and control it, Kuro most definitely would have gotten the better of me in that battle.

I looked over to the small table next to my bed, and stared at a picture, the only thing I actually brought to the Nest other than a bag. It was a picture of a large group of Luxios, as well as a few Shinx, and one Luxray. I was one of the Luxios at the time, and this was a tribe of sorts that I came from. I was raised in the tribe to be a warrior, someone to help others in the future and train the younger members of the tribe. I remembered all of other tribe members, as well as the Luxray who taught me basics of battling before I left for the Nest. all of my thoughts made me smile lightly.

"Reminiscing a bit?" Vero asked me from the other side of the room, her also laying in her bed.

"Just thinking back to a few friends who I used to talk to." I said, keeping my smile. "Did you have anyone you had to barge through in order for you to try and join the Nest?" I asked her. She chuckled at my wording.

"I just lived with my mom before I came here, and she was all for me trying to join the place that opposed the Void, even if she didn't know exactly who they were." She told me. "After all, apparently everyone here has at least one previous experience with the Void at one point, and I'm willing to bet that's the reason for most pokemon applying to this place initially."

I thought back to a previous experience I had with the rest of my tribe, and I immediately brushed it away, not wanting to think about it.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Hopefully everyone here gets a chance to cause some havoc to Void." I said.

"I agree." Vero responded before yawning. "Well, I need sleep, and considering your mentor, I suggest you sleep as well."

"Don't remind me…" I grunted.

Vero chuckled at my remark and layed on her back and closed her eyes. I then curled up in my bed, waiting for my drowsiness to get the better of me.

* * *

Hello readers!

Just wanted to say that I will be elaborating a lot more on the pasts of Kage and Vero in the future to make certain events more clear, as well as explain their experiences with the Void, I just wanted to clarify that I won't leave both of their pasts as vague pictures painted in this chapter.

Also, I want to apologize for my inability to come up with decent names for characters. I kind of suck at thinking of names, and the ones I've picked so far are pretty basic. For those of you who don't know, Kuro means black in Japanese, and Shiro means white. See how creative that is? Not very. Hopefully as new characters get introduced in the story, I will think of better names.

I once again want to thank everyone who has sent helpful reviews, PMs, etc. I appreciate all criticism and kind words, as it makes me a better writer and subsequently makes me feel utmost joy in my heart! (I wonder how much more cheesy I can get with these…)

See you next chapter!


	13. An invasive vision

**Luna**

I sat in my office of sorts, scribbling over locations on a map. I needed to direct a certain Void member to cause some terror in a small village. I had a rather difficult mission that I needed someone to pull off. It involved attacking said small village, which wouldn't usually be a problem, but through further research, I realized that there were quite a few competent pokemon there that may give some of my subjects a problem. Because of this, I decided to reach out to an admin that I hadn't directly spoken to for a few months at this point. He was a very accomplished Void member, but I didn't need his level of skill for anything as of late. However, ever since Rage came back from his mission empty-handed because of a certain Umbreon, I decided I should start utilizing my higher tier members. I didn't think not killing that little Eevee years ago would actually slow my work presently. Not only has he done exactly that, but he also did something that gave me a rather unfamiliar feeling. When I approached him on our ship, I was expecting him to be terrified, not being able to move as long as I was glaring at him. At first, that's exactly what was happening. I saw his muscles stiffen, I could tell he was shaking, and he couldn't speak coherently. However, soon after I began to threaten him, he spoke up not only coherently, but also with a defiant tone. Also… He had a look in his eye. It was a look that said something, a look that I never expected that pathetic child to give me.

It was a look that said 'I will defy you.'

After he blew himself off of the ship along with the Eevee cubs behind him, I felt an uncomfortable feeling creep up on me. For a split second, I felt worried.

 _Of course, it only lasted for a second. He can't do anything. If he tries, I'll shut him down immediately._

"Lady Luna, your company is here." A voice beside me said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Let him in Aven." I responded, prompting him to press a button and open the large metallic door that led to my office. My office was rather large. The entire construction of the room was made up of a dark blue metal, along the walls were small shelves made out of the same metal that held a lot of files and maps, as well as profiles for each of the members of the Void old and new. I sat at a desk near the back of the room, the desk was made of a durable type of wood, painted to match the color of the rest of the room. On the desk laid more files, as well as the map that I had just marked. I quite enjoyed my office as a place for me to work, it was an environment that I needed while taking a break from my usual activities.

I looked across the room to see a pokemon walk into my office and stand beside Aven. I looked at him, immediately noticing his freshly sharpened claws. I smiled, knowing that this task would be no problem for the pokemon standing before me.

"Lady Luna," He started, before bowing his head down. "What task do you have for me?"

"It's been awhile since I gave you a direct order." I told him, before getting up from, my seat, holding the map in my maw. I dropped the map in front of the newly entered admin. "There's a village close to Myriad that holds quite a few capable battlers. Knowing your modus operandi, I think you know what I want you to do." He picked up the map in between his claws.

He looked at the map and then smiled before nodding. "I won't let you down." he exited the room, now holding the map. I walked back to my desk, wanting to look through some reports from Kai and Aven revolving around the new Nest recruits, but before I could open it, another Void admin walked into my office, this one I had seen quite a bit recently, and I had a job for her.

"Hi boss! What was the assassin doing in here?" She asked me before walking closer to my desk.

"Your informality would make a lot of other admins hate you." I told her bluntly. I admittedly had a bit of a soft spot for this one. She was one of the first pokemon I recruited to the Void after Aven, and her friendly attitude really didn't say anything about the Leafeon's personality. I'd dare to say that she likes torturing others as much as I do. "I have a task that I'd like you to partake in. You see, we have an enemy right now that I think you'd be perfect for taking out." I told her, making her eyes widen in interest.

"Really? What do I have to do?" She said, very excitedly. Whenever I asked her take a pokemon out of the picture for me, she gets to take them and torture them afterward. Because of this, every time I gave her a mission directly, she almost can't contain her excitement.

"Aven, you can manipulate where our Umbreon friend goes for his Nest missions, can't you?" I asked him. It would make putting an admin after him a lot easier.

"Yes, I can." He simply said. Aven was never one to waste his words.

"Good. Grace, I'll have a location for you in about an hour. After you get that, leave whenever you want." I told her, taking out another map to give her the location.

"Sounds good boss! See you then!" She walked out of the door and back to who knows where. I knew she was the best one I could send after the bloody Umbreon at the moment. Not only was she a skilled admin, but she was the absolute opposite of him when it came to their personalities. Yet, both of them have a goal, and they are both very determined to reach said goal. Kuro wants revenge on the Void, Grace wants revenge on the Nest. Her parents were both criminals, and were both captured by the Nest and most likely killed. Grace wasn't there to witness it, but she swore that she would take down the Nest. In a way, her and Kuro were two sides of the same coin, and she had emotions backing her while trying to take down any member of the Nest, which she has successfully done multiple times in the past. At the moment, she was the best chance we had at taking out Kuro easily without Aven or myself stepping in. Neither of us wanted to, as that would be a huge risk to blowing our cover at the Nest. Seeing as none of the pokemon who know about us are willing to speak up due to lack of confidence, we still had two spies in the Nest, and we didn't want to do anything to risk that.

 _As soon as that damn Umbreon is out of the way, our tasks will become a lot easier…_

* * *

 **Myra**

"And that's the situation, do we have a spare bed to give them?" Core asked me.

Apparently, Kuro and Naru now have a small pokemon living with them. According to what Kuro told Core, he found a young Vulpix in one of our old storage areas. That Vulpix was attacked by a Void admin, and Kuro managed to get her away from him and safely get her back to the Nest. He also said that he would have no problem with her living with him and Naru. Right after that, Kuro said he felt somewhat responsible for her because he had been feeding her, so he wanted to make sure she was okay and take care of her. Because of this, they were short a bed last night, leading to 'a rather awkward situation' between him and Naru, so he asked Core if they could get a third bed. I smiled at the whole situation, and Core noticed it.

"We have extra beds in our main storage area, I have no problem with them getting one for their living space." I told him.

"This situation he found himself in… He takes after his parents more that I thought." Core laughed, and I smiled at the thought. "It really is a shame that they met such a brutal end."

I thought about Blade and Storm, and remembered when one of the Nests' leaders told me that Kuro had lost his parents eight years ago, right in front of his eyes at that. The shock that both of them were dead didn't make me feel great for the rest of the day. Both of them were not only great Ravens, but great pokemon as well. They were always caring to the ones around them, and they always brought a positive atmosphere wherever they went. When I figured out both of them were gone, I was upset to say the least. However, I also felt a large amount of guilt wash over me. I found out a few days after I talked with Kuro for the first time, after I had bluntly brought up his parents. I noticed that he was acting strange when I was talking to him, but I assumed it was just nervousness from his new lifestyle. Once I found out about his parents, I knew why he was acting the way he was. He was holding back his emotions. Thinking back, I was able to see the sadness in his expression. I probably brought up a swarm of unwanted memories within him. I was angry with myself for not knowing about their deaths, and even more angry with myself for bringing these memories back to Kuro. I was, however, happy to know that Core gave Kuro a bit of a talk later that day, and told Kuro about his parents' lives at the Nest, as it was something he most likely needed.

"I just wish we knew who was responsible, I'd like to have a word or two with them." I said, clenching my hand into a fist.

"Sadly, looking into someone's past is delicate. We can't get all of the details such as faces, but we get to know the situation." Core said. "Did you ever hear what else happened to Kuro that day? Other than his parents?" I slightly tilted my head, wondering what Core was talking about. "He was also… Abused."

"Abused?" I asked, not fully understanding. "In what way?"

"Well…" Core looked down, as if considering his wording. "He was… To put it bluntly, he was raped." He said, and I flinched. "He was pinned down by one of the pokemon that killed Storm and Blade, and the other two had their 'fun'" Core spat out the last word, sounding angrier than I've heard him for a long time.

"I had no idea…" I said, feeling my anger flare up as well, but I was able to suppress it. "And we have no idea who could be responsible?" I asked, trying not to show the anger in my voice. I took a pledge to not let my emotions take control of me, especially in front of a Nest leader.

"We only made out silhouettes. We have no idea about two of them, but we could make out the one that was closest to Kuro. We think it's an eeveelution, however we aren't sure as to what one exactly." Core scratched his head. "So, even if we have a vague idea of one of them, it's one out of eight pokemon species."

When I heard this, I came up with a possibility. For a while now, I had suspicions of an Umbreon we had working as a leader of the Nest having connections to the Void. There were some inconsistencies with what we saw in her past and what she told us happened. Not only that, but when she went to take out an outlaw, she would come back with their mutilated body. Ravens did need to kill at times, and every member has killed before. We didn't enjoy killing, but sometimes, you save lives by taking one. More often than not, you save a lot more lives by taking one owned by a criminal. The Umbreon, Luna, she had no problem whatsoever with killing. She did it almost happily, as well as mutilated them. This, along with the memory inconsistencies, made me very suspicious. Not only that, but about a month ago, she went on a mission and… Disappeared. We haven't heard from her since.

 _Maybe she's the one responsible… But where could she be now..? And even if she was sadistic and left, does that mean she's a part of the Void? Or is she just a pokemon that goes to the beat of her own drum?_

I tried to collect my thoughts. Sitting here and wondering about uncertainties wasn't going to solve any of them, I needed to investigate further.

"I'm going to go bring a bed to Kuro and Naru's room. After that, I'll go out and see if I can find out any new information about these pokemon." Core said, before turning towards the exit of my office. "Also, don't strain yourself too much thinking about the culprits right now. After all, you have an organization to lead." Core walked out of the room.

I sighed and picked up an old file containing Luna's information.

 _I'm sure you're up to something… but I can't say anything for sure yet. And who are your cohorts..? Where are they..?_

 _How long until they do something like this again..?_

* * *

 **Naru**

I looked at a rather peaceful scene. There was a Leafeon, a Vaporeon, and an Eevee, all mindlessly chatting and laughing in a small den. I tried looking down at my own paws, but they were almost completely invisible, plus I was in a place I had never been in before. Putting all of these facts together, I deduced that I was in a dream. It was strange, as I had never been a lucid dreamer, but I was most certainly dreaming right now, and I was very much aware of it. The dream was a bit strange, showcasing what looked like a small family living in a very cramped home. Despite this, the family seemed incredibly happy just to have each other's company. I thought about the small place I used to live in and compared it to this one. This one was much smaller than mine was, which somewhat baffled me due to the fact that the home I lived in was definitely the smallest in Myriad. Whoever lived in this home clearly didn't live in a town or city of any kind. It did however, look comforting. The small wooden table surrounded by chairs of the same material looked very sturdy, and also weren't unpleasant to the eye. The dirt walls were a bit unorthodox, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how little the construction of a home matters as long as it's enough for you to stay safe. While I was trying to take in more of the sight that I found myself looking at, my vision of the place began to blur, and then I found myself looking into nothing but a bright white light.

Once the light faded, I found myself looking outside of the small den I had just been observing the interior of. The entrance looked like a hole of sorts in the ground, and it didn't look very sturdy. Surrounding the dirt entrance was a group of flowers of all different types. Not too far away from the rectangular floral pattern stood a dense-looking forest, one that gave off no noise whatsoever, one that looked peaceful, despite its ominousity and density. Maybe it's not right to say it 'looked' peaceful, more like it just gave off that kind of vibe, it made me feel at ease. I looked in the opposite direction of the forest and found a cliffside. There was a small hill that also led to the same cliff. Under that cliff laid a fast-moving river, along with a group of sharp rocks that looked like they would have no problem tearing your body into shreds of flesh.

Near the cliff, I saw the Leafeon from earlier standing in the presence of three shadows. I couldn't make out who the three pokemon were because all I saw were their shapes, black and distorted collections of matter, along with distant voices that I couldn't decipher. It really bothered me that I couldn't tell who the pokemon were, as it gave me a feeling of uneasiness to cancel out the tranquillity of the forest. The Leafeon was talking to them with what looked like a rather cheerful expression, as if they were reminiscing on past events. I still couldn't make out any words, it all sounded like mumbling gibberish, but I could decipher the cheery and energetic tone coming from the leaf-covered fox. Soon after, I saw the leather-like blue skin of a Vaporeon walk out of the small den, and soon after, the brown and cream-colored fur of a small Eevee. The Vaporeon looked at what I assumed to be their mate, and then put on a rather confused expression. The Eevee behind her seemed to be slightly shaking, looking rather afraid of the splotches of shadow, one of them in particular.

The Vaporeon began to take steps towards their presumed mate and ask them about the other pokemon at their residence.

One step…

Two steps…

Three steps…

Then one of the shadowy shapes quickly stepped forward… and impaled the Leafeon. I watched as the makeshift horn made up of a mass of shadow entered the body of the Leafeon, and watched as it was slowly dragged up their figure. There was an unrealistic amount of blood pouring out from the Leaf fox, and their face was twisted in extreme agony. Once the horn made it to their head, the blob of shadow seemed to do something with its horn, and soon after, the Leafeon's head burst apart, sending a mass of crimson liquid and internal parts of its skull all around the area.

I looked upon the scene. I grimaced with invisible paws. I tried to scream, yell, make a noise, move my intangible body, but no action took place. I couldn't close or cover my eyes. I just floated in place, unable to do anything but cry invisible tears at what I just witnessed.

But it wasn't over.

The Vaporeon had a terrified, mortified look, and looked like she was tensing up to scream. The Eevee behind her just had a blank stare, and was wildly shaking. Before the Vaporeon could let out even a sound, another on of the shadow figures rushed her with a speed that I couldn't track. The blob took the Vaporeon high into the sky, and then seemingly changed its position. It quickly flew to the ground, slamming the Vaporeon into the dirt and grass with immeasurable force. I watched as more thick, red fluid coated the grass outside of the peaceful den. The body of the Vaporeon was now not recognizable. The body had collapsed onto itself, and looked like a small mass of death.

I found myself shuddering with my invisible body. I wanted to look away. I wanted to close my eyes. I wanted to wake up. I wanted to get out of this dream. I wanted to run away. I wanted to forget this ever happened.

Yet I couldn't.

My gaze was forced to the small Eevee, who had a waterfall of tears pouring out of their eyes. Even with these tears, the Eevee didn't even move, make a sound, or even change the look in their eyes. It was just… Blank. They weren't even shaking like a leaf anymore, they were just… Motionless, blank, confused, scared.

Broken.

I watched the scene in horror, when I saw the Eevee get pinned down by one of the masses of shadow. It was then that I heard actual cries coming from the Eevee, and it broke my heart. I watched as the two other masses approached the Eevee, and then they began to…

It was here when I truly wished, above all else, that I could stop watching.

At first, I didn't know what they were doing, as they didn't have concrete shapes, so it was hard to decipher their actions, but as soon as I realized what was happening, I felt my mind panic. As soon as I knew what was happening to this Eevee, my urge to scream, my urge to move, all of it came back tenfold, but I couldn't do anything.

I just had to stay here, motionless.

I just had to watch the Eevee get tortured.

This went on for an hour or two, and I was consciously watching the whole time. After time had just… passed, the shadow masses all got off of the Eevee, and they simply walked off into the forest behind them, acting as if nothing had just happened. Soon after they left, the Eevee stood up, and their legs shook uncontrollably. They seemed to have stopped crying, but their face was already stained with tears and sorrow. Their face also held the same blank stare. I watched as they walked slowly forward, and first arrived at their Vaporeon parent's body. They looked down at the mutilated body, unsure what to do. I saw the eyes of the Eevee begin to leak more tears, and then they picked up the Vaporeon's body in their jaws. They brought the Vaporeon to the top of the hill at the cliff side, and then dropped the body there, before vomiting. After spitting out their insides, the Eevee went to the Leafeon's body, and brought it to the same spot before, once again, vomiting. They then dug a large hole near the edge of the hill, and promptly buried both of the bodies inside of it. The Eevee then walked over to the flowerbed, now half-soaked in a crimson liquid, and took out a few of the clean flowers. They then put three flowers, one blue, one green, and a brown one in the middle. After that, they walked to the edge of the cliff on the hill, and when I say edge, they were almost hanging a paw off of it.

Right then, the Eevee let out a pained and hoarse scream.

The scream was loud enough to make my invisible body flinch, and I caught a mix of emotions from the noise.

Sadness. Confusion. Fear. Anger. Uncertainty.

Despair.

This is just one more thing about this dream that made my heart shatter, but I couldn't help but feel a light pull at the back of mind telling me I knew the voice of this Eevee, but since the only sounds from them I heard were cries and a scream, I couldn't be absolutely sure my mind wasn't just playing with me.

After the scream, my vision faded to white once more, and the last thing I saw before an environmental change was the Eevee sprinting into the forest.

The blinding light filtered out, and I was met with a new sight. I was now looking at a forest, presumably the one behind the den I was just looking at. It was exactly what you would expect from a dense forest, tall, thick-trunked trees of different types, a few feral bug and flying pokemon entered and exited my vision a few times. There were also a lot of plants, large plants growing off of the trunks of trees, growing off of a few rocks, and growing out of the ground. Some of them actually looked like the plants all over the main lobby of the Nest. The forest seemed to be dark, and I mean really dark. I'm fairly certain that it was daytime because of the small rays of sunlight coming from the tops of the trees. While I was observing the vegetation of the forest, something else entered my sight. I saw a slightly familiar brown ball of fur, and a flying pokemon. The Eevee seemed to be running away from what looked like a Fearow, who was attempting to close in and impale the small pokemon with its beak. The sight initially horrified me, but some of that fear vanished when I noticed something in the slightly larger Eevee's face that wasn't present last time.

Confidence, and sincerity.

The Fearow was closing in on the Eevee, but very sloppily. I deduced that it was a feral. The Fearow was inches away from the Eevee, who still kept a steady pace in their run. Once the Eevee had an opportunity, they made their tail glow a brilliant silver. After that, they abruptly jumped up, and ended up above the chasing Fearow. They then struck the Fearow's head with their tail, causing the Fearow to slump to the ground, unconscious. At first I thought the Eevee had straight up killed it, but it almost looked like they took extra care in order to make sure that the Fearow didn't end up dead. After the Fearow was put in its place, the Eevee casually walked off. I could tell it was the same Eevee that I had just seen, they looked exactly the same, aside from now being a little bit larger, due to time most likely. They were just casually walking through the forest, as if they didn't have any task in mind. As the Eevee was walking along, a white light suddenly enveloped them. It looked like their body got slightly taller, and the shape began to change, sprouting larger ears and a more pointed tail that matched their ears. Once the light wore off, the Eevee wasn't an Eevee anymore. They were now an Umbreon.

The newly evolved Umbreon kept walking, almost as if nothing had happened. However, after a few steps, they fell flat on their face. The Umbreon quickly jumped up, back on their feet, before backpedaling, slowly picking up speed with each step, and then crashed into a tree behind them. He looked rather frustrated with his actions, but finally managed to get up and keep his balance. I gave an invisible smile, but then I was pulled out of my amusing thoughts of the newly evolved pokemon.

 _Him..? Why do I suddenly know…_

Then it hit me.

I looked back at the newly evolved Umbreon, focusing. I noticed something that made me shiver. The face of this Umbreon… It looked more than familiar to me. I knew exactly who this was.

It was Kuro.

After realizing this, I connected the dots. Kuro had told me in the past that he lost his parents, right in front of him at that. I then recalled the shadowy figures, as well as a conversation with the leader of the Nest.

 _The shadow with a horn._

 _The bulky shadow that flew._

 _The small shadow that eagerly tortured Kuro._

 _Kai._

 _Aven._

 _Luna._

 _A Vaporeon._

 _A Leafeon._

 _Storm._

 _Blade._

I had just seen Kuro's past in much more detail than he described it. Of course, I completely understood why he didn't go into that kind of… Detail. I thought so much that the two of us could completely understand each other because we had been through the same kind of event in the past. Both of us had our simple, but happy lives torn away from us over a day. Both of us had what was left of our families taken abruptly, and both of us grieved over it for years.

Little did I know how much Kuro held back from his explanation.

I felt an uncomfortable sadness overtake me upon this realization, but I also thought of something I should have since this dream started.

 _Why am I having this dream in the first place..? This isn't even like a dream, this is looking into someone else's past! Why is this… Why am I seeing this..?_

My thoughts were interrupted, and I was blinded by another bright light.

Only this time, I didn't see anything but the inside of my eyelids, which I slowly opened.

I instantly saw Kuro standing up, not too far away from the bed we had both slept on. I then saw Shiro, who was also awake, and participating in an idle conversation with Kuro. Before I made my awakening known, I felt the remnants of tears on the fur under my eyelids. I quickly wiped them away with a paw.

 _Did that really affect me enough to cry in my sleep..?_

I quickly composed myself, trying my best to release any sort of negativity from my face. I didn't want to be asked what was wrong and have to explain the dream that I had just had. I especially didn't want to have to explain it to Kuro in particular, for obvious reasons. So to give myself some time to compose myself, I decided to listen in on what Shiro and Kuro were talking about.

"Are they a part of your fur?" Shiro asked, and I had no idea what she was referring to.

"No, actually." Kuro responded. "My fur is naturally really smooth, so they look like just another part of the pelt, but they're actually part of my skin." Kuro placed one of his forepaws on the golden ring on his forehead. "They almost feel like fur too, but they're just slightly different from normal skin."

 _So he's talking about the rings on his body._ I thought, smiling at the innocent question that the Vulpix asked. She didn't even stutter when talking to Kuro, and that meant that she was comfortable with him, which was definitely progress from how she talked last night. _Now that I think about it, I thought his rings were a part of his fur too…_

I took my thoughts away from the rings that surrounded the Umbreon's body and realized that I had effectively drained all negative emotions from my face. I put on a very slightly forced smile and forced my body to get up, making enough noise to cause Kuro to turn his head. As soon as I saw him, he flashed a strange look in his eyes, but quickly shook it off and smiled at me. _What was that..?_

"Morning, Naru." I couldn't help but notice the same strange glimmer in his eyes that he exhibited when I first woke up.

"Morning!" I tried to make my tone as cheerful as possible, eliminating any remaining negativity in my thoughts. I stretched my limbs across the ground after getting off of the bed Kuro and I shared. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I resisted the urge to blush, seeing that Kuro wasn't making a deal about it right after I woke up, I figured I shouldn't either.

I looked over at Shiro, who was curiously pawing the bed beneath her. She looked like she had never seen a straw bed, which was probably the most common type of bed, but after considering her memory loss, it didn't surprise me the way she messed with the bed like that. I noticed that she also no longer had Kuro's scarf draped over her, as it was folded up on the floor next to the bed.

I saw Shiro look up from her bed and turn her eyes towards me. She shyly rose one of her paws and did something to simulate a wave while smiling. This further eliminated the uneasiness I felt inside of me. I smiled back at her and also waved. I was happy that her comfort level was high enough for her to do that. Yesterday, she couldn't get a sentence out without stuttering to either of us, but now she was talking to Kuro normally and even gave me a kind greeting. He saw the gesture that Shiro made to me and smiled, as well as gave a small chuckle.

"Well, I need to get going to meet with Kai." Kuro grabbed his scarf with a claw and then tossed it around his neck.

"Oh! Kuro, mind if I go with you?" I asked him once I had a bit of a realization. "I have absolutely nothing to do today, and I've been curious about how you train with Kai for quite a while."

"As long as Kai allows it, I have no problem with it." He said, before then looking at Shiro. "Do you want to come too then? It would probably be better than staying cooped up here all day." Shiro seemed to consider the offer for a bit.

"I-If it's not a problem, then yes." She said, before shyly smiling. I then perked up more. It was definitely a good thing that Shiro would get to see the Nest. Whether for navigation purposes or getting used to being around other pokemon. Hopefully she would get the thought of all pokemon being hostile out of her head. I assumed that was her ideology, considering how she acted after she lost her memories.

"Sounds good, we should probably leave now then, before Kai decides to make my training harder for being late…" _Does he actually do that..?_

Not wanting to make Kuro's life harder, I promptly walked out of the door behind Kuro and Shiro.

We walked through the many open area of the Nest all while explaining where we were, as well as where we were going to Shiro. She was actually riding on Kuro's back, due to the fact that as soon as she saw a pokemon that wasn't me or Kuro, she froze up completely. Because of this, Kuro and I also tried to explain to her that no pokemon at the Nest would hurt her. We decided not to mention a certain Absol and Flygon to Shiro, as that would just make her anxiety that much worse. Even after we explained all of this, Shiro still felt safest on Kuro's back, and since he didn't complain, she stayed that way. I had no problem with this, as looking at the two gave me a bubbling warm feeling.

After getting all of the places in the Nest and discussion about other pokemon out of the way, the conversation somehow ended up at Kuro's rings again. I inadvertently brought them up when I said I thought they were a part of his fur, and then asked him if they actually had a function or not. I had no idea if they did something, or they were just a part of his skin and nothing more.

"They have a function, but not one I openly show." He started to explain with a strange tone, almost as if he didn't want to tell us said function. "They correspond to my emotions. If I feel a strong emotion of any kind, they'll start to glow. I… Don't really like this, so I spent a lot of time learning how to control them, but if I'm feeling an emotion and I'm not specifically trying to control them, they'll go off whether I like it or not." He finished with a small sigh of annoyance.

"How come you don't like it?" I asked him. It seemed like a rather small feature, and one that I didn't think he'd really care that much about. I also thought back to a few previous experiences with Kuro, and remembered his rings flaring up for a second or two. Back then, I thought I was just seeing things, but after this explanation and the fact that I saw that very thing the night prior, I was convinced.

"I'm not always comfortable with others knowing what I'm feeling." He explained with a different tone that I couldn't really place. "I prefer to hold my emotions to myself. Depending on the pokemon, someone else knowing how strong my emotions are bothers me." I understood that logic, as he wouldn't want an opponent in battle to know when he was flaring up. "However, learning to control the way my rings work benefitted me in more ways than hiding emotions. If I wanted to, I could change their color to match my fur and in turn, make myself almost unseeable in a dark area." In order to demonstrate, Kuro then darkened the rings covering his body. They essentially vanished, blending in completely with his fur. When Shiro realized what he had done, she gave a surprised gasp.

"Wow… That looks pretty useful! How'd you end up learning that?" I asked, wondering what exactly prompted him to try something like that.

"Complete accident." He bluntly said, to which I tilted my head. "I was, at the time, trying to calm down my rings from glowing due to my extreme annoyance with them." I stifled a laugh when Kuro said this. It was funny to think about how he got such a feeling of annoyance from his rings that they began to glow from that feeling alone. "When I realized I wasn't making progress, I stopped trying for a bit, but quickly realized that I had nearly made the coloring of my rings vanish. I held on to that feeling, and learned how to do it naturally because I thought it could help me in the future." He finished explaining.

"Interesting." I said. "I figured out that I had an ability like snow cloak by complete accident. My parents didn't know about it at first either. Once, I accidentally wandered into a snowstorm, and they thought I had run away because I almost completely vanished from them." I laughed lightly, and Kuro gave a small chuckle in response. Shiro looked a bit confused, most likely not knowing what I was talking about when I brought up my ability, to which I made a point to explain it to her later. It felt nice to not only talk about my late family without depressing context, but to remember something joyful that happened in the past.

We continued walking towards the field that Kai and Kuro usually train. During this time, Kuro explained to Shiro that he would be battling someone, and there was no malicious intent, it was just training. To be perfectly honest, it kind of worried me that Kuro felt the need to say this, as it meant the training may emulate a real battle. Just as he finished explaining this, we arrived at a certain field near the edge of the Nest, and in the middle of the dirt rectangle stood an Absol.

Even know I had no interaction with him whatsoever, I still got a little uneasy whenever I looked at him, and the dream I had last night really, really didn't help in the slightest. Shiro climbed off of Kuro's back and walked to stand next to me while Kuro walked towards Kai. Once he was standing in front of him, he began talking to him, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. After a minute of talking, Kuro turned and looked at me before nodding his head.

 _Does that mean we can stay..?_

After that, Kuro walked to one end of the field, Kai to the other. They turned to each other and then locked gazes. Neither of them seemed to move an inch, until I saw Kuro's body lower slightly.

 _Here we go…_

Both Kuro and Kai shot at each other almost faster than my eyes could track. Kai's horn was glowing a bright green. I had a quick flashback to the dream I had the prior night, but I very quickly pushed it down. Once they were molecules away from each other, Kuro stepped quickly to the side and attempted to hit Kai with one of his claws, but Kai reacted fast enough and jumped to the side. Kai quickly then ran at Kuro and smacked him with one of his legs, and it sounded hard. Kuro slid back, but steadied himself to the ground with his claws. Immediately after, he lunged at Kai and swung his body around, connecting an iron tail with the side of kai's head. He ended up flying back, but ultimately landed on his four paws, seemingly unfazed. Kuro then shot off two shadow balls, one hitting the ground to create a thick cloud of dirt, the other rocketing through the smoke and connecting with Kai once again. Once more, Kai did little more than flinch slightly before shooting off a dark pulse through the same thick cloud of smoke, which promptly connected with the center of Kuro's chest. Kuro stood his ground, digging his claws further into the ground and not budging an inch. Soon after, the cloud from Kuro's shadow ball cleared, and the mentor and protege rushed each other once again. They ended up side by side, and both bared their claws at each other. Both of them connected, and both of them drew blood out of one another. There was now one, deep-looking slash on both Kai and Kuro, and I almost flinched at the sight.

 _They really don't hold back even know it's training…_

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Shiro slightly trembling at the sight of Kai and Kuro trading blows with one another. She quite clearly wasn't used to watching others battle, and I was suddenly very glad that Kuro specifically pointed out to her that Kai and him weren't trying to kill each other. I didn't want Shiro to be so on edge though, so I lifted one of my paws and lightly placed it on Shiro's back. She then looked up at me, and I smiled.

"Try not to worry about them too much. Like Kuro said, they're not going to go too far, this is just a way to improve their skills." The reassurance seemed to calm her down a bit.

"They really look like they want to hurt each other…" She said quietly.

"That's just because Kuro really wants to improve. Because of this, he's willing to get hurt for it." I told her, before releasing a small sigh. "Tell you what, if he gets too injured by this, we'll scold him together." Shiro laughed and then nodded, feeling better. I then turned my gaze back to the field, watching Kuro use his tendrils to block and onslaught of projectiles from Kai.

The training went on for quite a few hours. We had passed noon a while ago, and the two of them were still battling. Both of them kept up the same ferocity of attacks, but I could easily tell that time has been taking both of their stamina away. Kuro had been panting heavily every time he wasn't dodging an attack, or sending one himself, and Kai was also slowing down more and more by the minute. Both of them sustained pretty heavy injuries, with a lot blood drawn over the fight, but at the same time, both of them took care to not inflict any serious or fatal injuries. Nonetheless, I could now see why whenever Kuro came back to our room, he was beaten up the way he was. While watching the two of them train, I compared it to how I train with Shard, and it was night and day. Shard would toss me around, but not inflict the kind of injuries that Kai would deliver to Kuro.

After a long while of panting from Kuro, Kai finally decided to end their training. Kuro almost immediately dropped all weight in one of his forepaws and took in a lot of large breaths quickly. I noticed that Kai tossed something on the ground in front of him, and Kuro then picked it up and began to eat it.

At first, I was confused, but after a second of thinking, I realized it was probably just a berry to help him regain some energy. After Kuro ate it, he got back up on all fours, and then stretched his limbs out. Kai then took his attention once again, and I could hear him this time, as the two of them ended up being closer to us than when they started.

"Before you go, I want to check your progress on the latest move I taught you." He simply said. Kuro nodded in response, seemingly feeling much more energy within himself after the berry was consumed.

Kuro stood up straight, and closed his eyes, focusing on… Something. Soon after, I saw a small black glow surround his body. The glow was very small, almost not noticeable, and also almost looked like a mist. A few seconds passed, and Kuro's eyes snapped open suddenly, almost making me jump. Right after that, five or six beams of darkness shot out of Kuro's body, flying into the sky quickly. The beams all arched forward as each of them reached their maximum height and then flew towards an empty spot on the grassy ground. Each one made contact with the earth, making the ground quiver with each one that landed. Afterwards, Kuro's body got less tense, and he let out a large breath.

"Not bad. Work on incorporating it into our next training." Kai said robotically. He then walked away, going further into the Nest until he was out of sight. I walked to Kuro, who was still standing in the middle of the field and Shiro followed right after. Kuro seemed to notice, and then began to walk towards us.

"Sorry that took so long." Kuro apologized, his voice only having a very slight amount of tiredness in it. At least, a lot less than I expected.

"I mean, we're the ones who wanted to come, so I don't think you have anything to apologize for." I told him. "But geez, you weren't kidding when you said he treated your training like a real battle… You two actually looked like you wanted to kill each other at some points."

"Well, I keep improving, so I have no problem with getting injured while training." He stated without an ounce of doubt. "Plus, the injuries aren't even that bad, all it takes is a sitrus berry to give me energy until I sleep it off. I think it's worth it for the improvement."

"Just… Try not to overdo it. This kind of training can get dangerous if you don't watch it." I told him, trying to hide the worry in my voice but failing miserably. Kuro gave me a comforting smile.

"Don't worry. I may not be the best when it comes to knowing my limits, but I'll make sure I don't do anything detrimental." His tone made me feel a bit better, and I returned his smile. "Also, just so you know, I feel like the side effect from using that attack is going to kick in soon, so don't panic when it does." I then tilted my head slightly.

"Wait, you now have more techniques that have side effects?"

"Yes I do." He simply responded.

"What do you mean by side effects?" Shiro chirped in. I had forgotten that she didn't know anything regarding this.

"I just get a bit of a pain spike after I use certain moves." Kuro explained. "It's nothing I can't deal with, just a bit-" Kuro suddenly flinched and instantly slapped a paw over his mouth. It also looked like a huge shiver went up his body, and his eyes shut tightly. His body was tense, but he somehow remained silent.

"A-Are you okay?" Shiro asked, not really understanding the situation. Kuro managed to open one eye and nod his head slowly. After a few moments, he moved his paw and and took in a few breaths.

"And there it goes…" He said, releasing a relieved sigh. "For some reason, that attack is different. It also has a recoil to it, but it's much more delayed." He explained, seeming like he's no longer in any pain.

"I honestly don't know how you can deal with that…" I told him. "That must hurt a ton for you to have to restrain yourself because of it, especially considering how many hits you took against Kai and didn't let out so much as a sound." Kuro awkwardly shuffled his ears and gave an embarrassed smile.

"It's… Manageable." He simply stated. "On another note, I'm done here, so why don't we show Shiro around the Nest some more? It would be good for future reference." I thought about his suggestion.

"Sounds like a good idea!" I responded. "But, will you be okay to walk around more? You looked like you were about to collapse a few minutes ago." I asked.

"I'll be fine. Like I said, a sitrus berry is enough to give me energy until I rest off any injuries that I have." Kuro told me, confident that he could walk around. I just nodded back at him. "What do you say, Shiro?"

"Sure!" Shiro chirped happily. She then climbed back onto Kuro's back after he insisted he could handle it after his training. For the next hours until night, we walked around the Nest, showing Shiro all of its important parts.

* * *

Once we were done showing Shiro around, she was fairly tired, as was I, and I'm sure Kuro was as well. We had a rather peaceful time giving Shiro a tour, we even ran into Core and he was able to grant us a third bed. After all of the walking around, we ended up back at our door with a very sleepy Shiro, almost passing out on Kuro's back. Once we walked up to the door, Kuro opened it, but didn't immediately go in.

"Shiro, why don't you go in and sleep? I need to talk to Naru about something." I tilted my head in confusion after Kuro said this, but Shiro was too tired to really complain, so she got off of Kuro's back and slumped down on her bed, which was Kuro's old one. Once she was laying down, Kuro shut the door and turned to me.

"What's up?" I asked him casually, trying to hide my confusion.

"Is something bothering you?" He asked me, and my body stiffened. "This morning, you had a… sad look in your eyes, and throughout the day that look kept coming back time and time again." He said, and I didn't know how to respond.

 _How did he notice? I could've sworn I hid my uneasiness…_ My thoughts traveled to the strange glint in Kuro's eyes this morning. _I guess he did notice right off the bat… He's probably been looking out for it all day then…_ Through my thoughts, I didn't notice I've been standing in front of Kuro silently for about a minute.

"Naru…" He said concerningly. "If something is bothering you, talking about it helps. You're the one who taught me that in the first place. Plus, we told each other we'd help one another, didn't we?" Kuro smiled at me. "What's wrong?" I wanted to avoid talking about my dream of the previous night so much, especially to Kuro. It would just bring up more bad memories for him, but that was what was bothering me for more than one reason. Not to mention, I didn't want to lie to Kuro.

So I told the truth.

I told him, from start to finish, exactly what I saw in my dream. I explained the very beginning, when I saw his family living in peace. I explained when the blobs of shadow showed up and began their atrocious actions. I explained when I saw the shadows… Abuse him. Finally I explained that I saw his evolution, but by then, I was trying to hold back tears. I felt guilty for telling Kuro all of this from the very beginning, and I was afraid of what his reaction would be. Once I finished, I just looked at the ground. I was upset that I caved in and basically re-explained Kuro's worst memories to him. Right after I explained my entire dream, I immediately apologized for bringing everything up to him, and apologized that I now knew the things he didn't tell me, the things he didn't want me to know. After that, I just shut my eyes and silenced myself. I didn't know what Kuro was going to do, but I was expecting a scolding for bringing the subject up, or maybe he was just going to walk away, not saying a word.

Instead, I felt a familiar paw rest on the the top of my head.

I brought my eyes up, and locked them with Kuro's. While staring into his deep, red irises, I didn't see a single drop of distaste. Nothing but comfort. He smiled at me.

"You really have nothing to be sorry for." He said with a soft tone. "I've been thinking about those events since they happened, and they haven't left my mind. It's a big part of what motivates me train as hard as I do. You brought no pain to me by telling me about your dream, so you don't need to worry, or feel guilty. If anything, I'm worried that you had to see… That."

"N-No!" I shouted, maybe a bit too loud. "I saw something you didn't tell me, so that makes me think you didn't want me to know, and yet, I ended up seeing it anyway." Kuro still didn't remove his paw, even know my shout came out louder than anticipated.

"You had no control over that, please don't feel guilty." He said, keeping his tone the same. "Besides, the only reason I didn't go into detail when I told you initially… Was because I honestly thought you'd be disgusted." I noticed that his gaze lowered to the ground, but he kept his paw still. "I mean, I don't think I need to go into detail now that you've seen it all. I assumed that, had I told you back then, you would have been disgusted with me. For that reason, I sort of held off, and didn't elaborate."

"Of course I don't think that!" I shouted again, and rose my head, causing Kuro's paw to no longer be resting on it. "You… You had no control over any of that. You were just a cub, you had no way to prevent what happened. What happened to you was… Awful, but that doesn't change you! You're still the same pokemon I sprinted into head-first, no matter what I know about you!"

Kuro looked at me with a surprised gaze, almost like he didn't know how to respond to my words. After a few seconds, he closed his eyes and smiled again.

"I swear Naru, will I be able to cheer you up once without you returning it immediately?" He asked me, and I smiled.

"Isn't that my job as your friend?" Kuro and I locked eyes. "Thank you. You really eased my stress." I told him with an appreciative tone.

"You helped me get over something that has been bugging me ever since I told you about the past, so thank you too." Kuro told me with a similar tone.

The two of us then headed into our room, and both went to sleep, hoping the next day wouldn't be as stressful.

* * *

 **?**

I walked through the small town I was appointed to, but the place seemed to be deserted. This confused me, as I was told specifically to come here and exterminate the residents, but I checked every structure of the place, and found not a single pokemon. The entirety of the grassy ground under all of the wooden structures seemed to be well-kept, as well as the structures themselves. There wasn't much plant life around, but the land itself was a peaceful sight to behold. As I was walking around the area, my eyes landed upon a rather large wooden structure, somewhat separate from the rest of the area. From this creaky-looking structure, I smelt the lives of other pokemon.

 _There they are…_

I began to walk towards the place, but I sensed something behind me and immediately jumped to the side, avoiding a water pulse. I swiftly turned my head around to see a Prinplup, staring at me with nervous eyes. The Prinplup looked like a young adult, and seemed to be stopping me from going towards the large wooden structure in the distance.

"W-What are you do-" Those were the last words that Prinplup spoke.

I dashed towards them fast, and jammed a claw into their midsection. A large stream of blood flowed out, spreading itself down my arm. It looked like the Prinplup was about to make a noise, but I stopped it by dragging my claw through its flesh, more blood flooding out of the wound. They were in too much shock to make a noise, and then I decided to end their suffering. I swiftly picked up my other claw, and lobbed the Prinplup's head clean off. The body then went limp, and fell to the ground along with the head.

I started walking to the wooden structure again, wondering how many pokemon were about to die.

* * *

Hello readers!

So, I would have had this chapter out a day earlier, but after I originally typed it and read it over, I realized that it came out like total garbage. It wasn't minor errors either, I just completely dropped the ball on the whole thing, so I re-wrote it, delaying the chapter for a bit. Hopefully, I will be forgiven for my sins.

Once more, thank you for the criticism, kind PMs, etc. I appreciate every one of them and they make me feel very happy! (Need time to think of another cheesy line.)

See you next chapter!


	14. Retracing steps

**Kuro**

Two days had passed since Naru had her 'dream.' After she told me about it, I instantly saw it as more of a vision than a dream. She saw things I hadn't even told her about, so I definitely didn't think it was just a random dream. I had been thinking about possibilities of why she had this vision, but I couldn't come up with anything coherent. Every idea that popped into my head just ended up having no concrete reasoning behind it. It got to a point where I was just conjuring up nonsense in my head, so I just dropped the theories for a bit. There wasn't any point in giving myself a headache trying to think of an explanation for something I had no idea the reasoning behind in the first place. I also had no way to look into the reasoning, so I just need to drop it for the time being.

The past two days were mainly spent getting Shiro used to other pokemon than Naru and I. I was expecting her to have a storm of issues when it came to this, but she did surprisingly well around others when she knew they weren't dangerous. We started with Kage and Vero. After explaining the whole situation regarding Shiro to both of them, we had her introduce herself to the two of them. It went rather smoothly, and Shiro seemed to be comfortable around them after a few minutes of talking. This made me grateful, as we needed someone other than Naru and I to be familiar with Shiro, just in case anything unexpected happened. It's not like it hasn't happened multiple times in the past, so better safe than sorry. Not to mention, Shiro was definitely being hunted previously, as her location was closed in on by a Void admin, and there was no guarantee that it wasn't going to happen again. If Shiro really escaped from a Void facility, then they would definitely want her back, or worse. For this reason, I wanted to take more precautions to make sure Shiro wasn't in any kind of danger.

I was happy that I took said precautions, because Naru and I were now on our way to talk with our boss about something, and I didn't have a good feeling about it. She hadn't called out to us directly since she gave us our missions, and that was because she gave everyone their first tasks, but I didn't know what to think about being called to her since then.

"So why do you think we're being called?" Naru asked from next to me. "It's a bit out of the ordinary, don't you think?"

"If I had to guess, she probably wants to give us a task to complete directly." I told her. "Although, I don't really know for sure. It's been a long time since she called out to us, so maybe she plans on doing something different." I couldn't really think of a reason as to why she needed to give us a task directly. I would think the only reason she directly assigns a mission in the first place would be if someone was specifically qualified for a certain task to complete, but wouldn't she assign a task like that to someone who has been a Raven for more than a month and some change?

 _What exactly would we be qualified for that the other members aren't..?_

I stopped my continuing train of thought about why we were being called out. I was going to find out in a few minutes anyway, so thinking about it more would be pointless anyway. We kept walking through the Nest, on our way to our boss' office. Even after living at the Nest for over a month, I still didn't fully know my way around the place. The size was large as is, but there were also not many differences from one part of the it to the next, so I had a bit of trouble keeping my bearings when walking around. I'm pretty sure the only places I know how to get to by heart are the shops and Kage and Vero's room. Those are the only places I go to regularly, so I know how to get there, but when it came to other parts of the Nest, I was mostly clueless. Luckily, Naru knew her way around so much better than I do, so she was able to lead us to our boss' office. If she had the same problem that I did, then we'd just be wandering around the Nest looking like idiots for who knows how long.

After a small while of walking, we arrived at a door that I hadn't seen since we first arrived here. One that matched the entrance to the main lobby of the Nest. I walked up to it and knocked a certain pattern with the back of my paw. Every Nest member had a 'code' of sorts that we used if we wanted a word with our boss. Everyone's was different, but they all consisted of a series of knocks that wasn't too easy to describe. The point is, we all had a pattern, and we all used said pattern to get into our boss' office. Once I finished knocking the pattern into the door, it slowly opened. Not bothering to wonder how exactly the door opened, Naru and I both walked into the room.

Once we did, I took in the familiar sights of the office. The violet coloring of the walls, and the golden chandelier on the ceiling surrounded by strange shapes. I still wondered about those shapes, but I passed them off as a design choice and looked at the shiny Greninja sitting behind their desk. She had one hand folded over the other, pressed up against the bottom of her face. When she looked up at us, she grew a small smile.

"Hello Kuro, Naru." She simply greeted. She had a strange tone in her voice that I couldn't place. "It's been awhile since I talked to the two of you directly." She stood up from her desk and then walked across the room in order to stand in front of us. "I know it's a bit strange to start off with this, but I want to apologize to you about something." I tilted my head and was about to question what she needed to apologize for, but she bowed her head down and started to talk before I had the chance to.

"Last time I talked to you, I brought up your parents, Kuro." She closed her eyes. "I wasn't aware of what had happened to them in the past, so I brought them up insensitively. I'm sorry for doing that." After she was done talking, she didn't raise her head. She stayed in the same position, waiting for a response.

 _And here I was hoping she didn't know about them…_

"Um… You don't need to apologize." I awkwardly shifted my ears, as the situation at hand was making me a bit uncomfortable. "You didn't know what happened, so it's not your fault. Plus, that was more than a month ago, so I wouldn't worry about it." She finally changed her position and looked at the two of us again.

"Thank you for your forgiveness." She simply said. "Now, for the reason I called you here, first, I need to ask the two of you a question. Naru, you know the town of Myriad well, don't you?" Naru responded instantly.

"Yes, I do. I lived there for a long time, so I know my way around the whole town pretty well." Naru said.

"Very good. Now, Kuro, you know the open area that surrounds your old home, don't you?" She asked me, and I wondered why exactly she wanted to know how well we knew our old homes.

"I know the forest near it really well, and I know a lot of the area that leads towards Myriad." I told her.

"Perfect." She turned around and grabbed some papers from the top of her desk before putting them in a folder. "We have a lot of missions in those areas as of late, and it would be easier for me to send Ravens to do all of the tasks in one trip as opposed to sending a different team there day by day. Also, because the two of you know the area related, I thought you would be the perfect ones to handle it." I shifted my bag to the front of my body to receive the folder. "I have a set amount of jobs for you two to do listed here, are you up for it?" She asked us. Naru spoke up first.

"Wait, if we're doing a whole list of missions, are we staying there for more than one day?" She asked. I wondered about that as well, especially when it usually takes us around a full day to do one task normally.

"You'll most likely be there for a few days. I'd say a week at most if you have a decent rate in your task completion." Myra told us. "You'll be flown out there by a Raven, and in a week from when you arrive, I'll send someone to bring you back. You'll also get a small device to coordinate information to us from Myriad, or if we need to let you know about something." Myra then took out a small circular device with a violet exterior. The violet coloring had two small orange lines rounding the device, surrounding a screen that was just short of being the size of the entire metal contraption. The screen was blank, taking the form of a black circle in the middle of the Violet. It didn't seem to have any buttons of any kind, so I had no idea how the thing worked, but I decided to not question it immediately.

Myra slid it into my bag before taking another one out from behind her desk. She held it up to the side of her head, and began to explain.

"These small devices were brought to us about a month ago by an outside company. They're programmed by psychics, and they give you the ability to communicate with someone telepathically as long as you have the device in your vicinity." She explained, and I put on a confused face.

"Telepathy?" Naru questioned, and obtained a nod from Myra. "How does that even work without us being psychics?"

"I'm not sure, after all, they weren't even designed by the Nest. All I know is that you can link them with one another, and then that gives the pokemon the ability to talk to anyone they happen to be linked with as long as the device is in their possession." Myra further explained.

"Technology is weird…" Myra put the second device she took out into Naru's bag.

"Both of these are already linked with Core, and he's who you'll be reporting to if you need to relay any information. Of course, you should also let us know if something has gone wrong on your end, that way, we can help you out with it." Myra told us. "Now, as for how you use these devices, since you both keep your bags with you at all times, you'll always have the ability to communicate with Core and each other if you link them. In terms of how to actually communicate with them, it's all in your state of mind." I tilted my head in confusion in synchronization with Naru, and Myra chuckled. "Basically, you need put the pokemon you're trying to talk to in your head, and focus on them. Think about how you want to communicate with them, or how you want to tell them something, and then put those words through your mind. If done properly, then the pokemon on the receiving end with hear your thoughts."

Right after Myra was done explaining, I felt a headache coming on. _Who designs this kind of thing? What kind of pokemon even come up with these ideas?_ I shook my head, not wanting to try and understand something far beyond my current comprehension.

"Why don't you two link your devices with each other and try it out? It would be a good idea to get a feel for it in case you need to use it out in the field." Myra suggested.

"How do we link them?" Naru asked.

"Just put them both on the ground next to each other, and after a minute or two, they'll link up." Listening to Myra, I grabbed the device out of my bag with my maw, ad placed it on the ground. Naru then did the same, and we observed the two violet circular communicators. After a minute, the screens on both of them lit up. They shared a dark blue shade, but no words or symbols appeared on them. The screens just shared a solid blue, until shifting back to black after a few moments. Once they were back to normal, Naru and I just stared at the things cluelessly. This did not go unnoticed by Myra, who started to laugh.

"Your devices are done linking, so you should be safe to try and use them now." The two of us nodded and both placed the devices back in our bags. Immediately after that, I tried to empty my mind. I imagined that using this would take a lot of practice, and it would be difficult to-

 _Kuro? Can you hear me? Hello?_

I jumped at the sound that had just played in my head. It sounded like I was being whispered to, like the voice was coming from right next to my ear and wasn't loud, but at the same time, the voice sounded like it wasn't whispering, almost like it was talking at normal volume but got quieted down. Of course, I also recognized the voice as Naru's.

I closed my eyes again and tried to focus for a response.

 _Can you hear me Naru? I can hear you fine._ I… Thought back.

 _Yes, I can! Wow, that was a lot easier than expected._ Naru's voice played in my head.

I opened my eyes, no longer needing to focus. That was actually really easy… It sounded so complicated that I assumed it would be difficult, but I have no reason to complain.

"So have you two managed to communicate?" Myra asked from in front of us, and the two of us nodded.

"It was a lot easier than I thought it'd be, which is a bit of a relief." Naru said, and I nodded once more in agreement.

"Now that you both know how that works, I'll call a Raven to bring you to your destination soon. I suggest you get everything you need ready and prepare to head out." Myra told us. The two of us nodded in affirmation and then exited her office.

As soon as we left and began heading back to our room, I thought about actually leaving the Nest for a week. The idea itself I didn't have a problem with, but the aspect of needing to leave Shiro right after we got her comfortable here was something I couldn't quite keep out of my head. I was suddenly very glad we took the time to introduce Shiro to Vero and Kage, because we were most likely going to have to ask them to check up on Shiro every now and then in order to make sure she stays okay. Either that, or we would need to take Shiro with us, which would be dangerous, so I instantly put that thought aside.

On the way back, Naru and I conversed on what exactly we thought we'd be doing in Myriad, or the surrounding area. Myra did give us a list of tasks, so we decided to look at them on the way back.

 **There is a Gardevoir that runs an orphanage as of two weeks ago, it seems very beneficial so we want it to be checked up on and helped if needed.**

 **There is a Raven who is accepting applications to join the Nest as medical staff, they will be at the place where the applicants' tournament was held, we want these applications to be retrieved.**

 **Do a general sweep of the town to make sure nothing underhanded is going on.**

 **Survey the residents and see how commonly the Void is known as a threat.**

 **Verify that there are no Void bases around the perimeter of the town, or in the town itself.**

 **Investigate a small town two miles east of Myriad, we sent two Ravens there a little while ago and neither of them have reported back yet. We'd like to know what exactly happened to them.**

"Looks like we'll have our hands full for a bit." Naru said from beside me. "Although, at least none of this looks dangerous, besides that last one that is."

"Well, hopefully their communication devices just broke or something. There isn't anything explicitly stating that something bad happened." I responded, receiving a nod in return.

"I hope you're right."

The two of us made it back to our room, and walked in on a barely conscious Shiro. She was stumbling around, it looked like she had just gotten up from sleeping. However, when the two of us walked over to say something, her mind seemed to start processing again.

"Hi Kuro and Naru!" She happily chirped without stuttering. After talking to her the past two days, she seemed to not have a stutter problem anymore when it came to Naru and I, which I was grateful for. She still stuttered a bit around Kage and Vero, but progression in small steps is okay.

"Hi Shiro!" Naru happily greeted before petting her head, something I noticed has happened a lot in recent memory. I looked at the two engage with each other happily, and I smiled. I was really glad that Shiro was here safely with us and not getting hunted by some psycho who wanted to do who knows what with her.

Thinking back to the events that brought Shiro to the Nest, I began to wonder about something. That Mr. Mime… Rage, he was really close to the Nest when he was hunting Shiro, about a mile away. A Void admin being so close to so many Ravens could be really bad, but then again, there are two Void members in the Nest itself, so having another one close by wasn't too much of a surprise. The Void definitely knows where the Nest is at this point, there's no doubt about it. Not only are Kai and Aven here, but Luna was as well, and considering that she's the leader of the Void, there's no way our location isn't known. I wanted more than anything to tell Myra about this, but it's my word against theirs, and being a recruit, my word will not hold up against two leaders, trusted leaders at that.

 _Is there really nothing I can do? How long until the Void actually launches some kind of attack on the Nest?_ I paused for a second, and thought about the idea that just came up in my head. There really wasn't any reason why the Void wouldn't just take the fight directly to the Nest, that is, unless they aren't confident. The Nest makes each one of their members out to be some kind of terrible force that we should never challenge directly, but could they be weaker than we think?

I wasn't about to go and assume that the Void was weak, far from it. However, the Nest just might be stronger. _Either that, or Luna is just toying with everyone. What reason would she have to do that though? Is it just to stir up confusion? So she can take down the Nest more easily in the future? For her own pleasure? Maybe-_

"Kuro, are you okay?"

My head snapped to the attention of Naru's voice. I was just lost in thought, and I don't know for how long. I was probably just staring into space for the past few minutes…

"I'm okay, just thinking about a few things." I responded while twitching my ears. I spoke with a little less enthusiasm than I initially wanted to, but I still kept my tone cheerful, so hopefully my worry wouldn't get sensed.

"You space out a lot, Kuro." Naru told me. "You should try to relax your thoughts more often. I know we have a lot of stuff we're ignorant to right now, but we'll find answers in due time. Try not to strain yourself."

 _Try not to strain yourself…_ I played Naru's words back in my head.

"I'll try my best. I guess you can say I'm still not completely used to not being alone with my thoughts all the time." I told her.

"It makes sense if you were on your own for so long, but you've been adapting well in other areas, so I'm sure you'll just get used to it with more time." I responded by nodding my head.

"You were by yourself before you came here?" Shiro asked from in front of Naru and I.

 _Right… She doesn't know about any of this…_

I gave a nervous chuckle. "Yes, for a long time before I came here, I was alone."

"How come?' She asked, and I gave a small sigh. Not wanting to tell her about my… Situation, I told her that, at the time, I felt more comfortable when I was alone so I traveled around just exploring until I found my way here. Shiro was way too young for me to give her the truth, so I just told a white lie.

"I was alone for the same reason." Naru then followed. "Both of us liked being alone with our minds, so we both stayed alone. Although, the two of us had a change of heart recently and both came here." Naru further lied. I felt bad for lying to Shiro, and I could tell by the tone of Naru's voice that she wasn't exactly comfortable with it either, but it was necessary nonetheless. Also, this conversation reminded me of something we needed to tell Shiro.

"Right, Shiro." I said, and she turned her eyes to mine. "Naru and I need to… Go away for a little while. We have something we need to do that is going to take place a decent distance away." I told her. I really did have second thoughts about leaving Shiro here, but I didn't want to risk her safety at all. It would be much better for her to be at the Nest than out with us in the field. The field is too unpredictable, while the we'll know exactly how much protection Shiro has in the Nest. However, while that was settled, I still worried about how she would feel about us leaving in the first place.

"How long will you be gone?" She asked. I couldn't pinpoint the emotions she held in her voice.

"About a week." I responded, still worrying about a negative reaction. I took a quick glance at Naru and saw that she had a similar look of slight distress. However, Shiro didn't look very reactive to the situation at all.

"Okay! I hope it goes well for you!" Shiro cheerfully said.

I was kind of at a loss. I thought she would be upset about us needing to leave her right after taking her in, but she sounded like she was more than ready if something like this came up. When the fact we needed to tell Shiro about this first popped into my head, I thought about how I felt back when my parents had to leave me alone for a while. I was always upset about it, and I never wanted them to leave. Since Shiro seemed only slightly older than I was when I had those feelings of distress, I expected a somewhat similar reaction, especially since she didn't remember much from her past. Naru seemed to share similar thoughts with me, gauging by her expression.

"You're not worried about being alone again?" Naru asked concerningly.

"It's only for a week, right? I lived in that weird shack for a month by myself, and I was okay. Plus, it's different now that I'm here. Both of you said that it's safe here, so I trust you!" Shiro exclaimed.

I was, once again, speechless. _This girl… She's so much emotionally stronger than I was when I was younger._ I thought back to after my parents died, primarily, the first bit of time I was alone. I had no idea what I was doing, and after hiding from ferals and learning what plants not to eat through trial and error, I was still hopeless. I never saw the light in anything because of recent events haunting me. Yet, here a Vulpix is standing in front of me, not worried at all about being left alone again because she has confidence that we'll come back. She doesn't have any memories to go by, no previous experiences to reference. She even pointed out that, since she's at the Nest now, she's safer, so she's seeing the positives in being alone again for a little while. I smiled, and let out a small chuckle.

 _She even trusts us to come back so strongly, regardless of the fact she's known us for about two days._

"You're so much more optimistic than I ever was." I said to her. "Also, thank you for trusting us on such short notice." She smiled in response, and then did something I wasn't really expecting. She walked over to my side, getting a strange glance from both me and Naru. Right after that, she jumped onto my back, almost making me fall over in the process. I stumbled a little bit, trying to regain my balance from the unexpected gesture. Noticing my struggle, Shiro started to laugh, which was soon followed up by Naru. She then placed her head on top of mine.

"I trust you because you made me feel safe for the first time from what I can remember. Not only that, but you protected me, so how can I not trust you?" Shiro said in a happy tone. When she said this, I felt a strange emotion stir up in me. It felt so foreign for another pokemon to say something like this to me. I was without interaction with any others for the longest time, and even before that, I was being protected by two pokemon, not protecting anyone myself. For a pokemon to say that I made them feel safe, to suggest that I could protect them, brought out a large feeling of happiness from within me.

 _How can one's life take such a drastic turn in one month of time?_ I thought to myself before smiling.

"You know Shiro, you won't be alone while we're gone either." Naru said from next to me. "We introduced you to two of our friends, and they'll make sure you don't feel alone anymore." When Naru said this, Shiro jumped off of my back and onto Naru's. Caught off-guard, Naru had a similar reaction to the gesture that I did, to which the situation repeated itself but with roles traded. After looking at this, I had the thought of my life changing so fast pop into my head again. I actually had pokemon I could call friends now… I wasn't alone. Having others in my life brought out the same feeling of happiness from the core of my being.

After a few minutes of Shiro asking random questions about our 'trip' as she called it, we realized that it was time for Naru and I to leave for the time being. After coming to this realization, Shiro hopped off of Naru's back and walked back over to her bed. Naru and I prepped ourselves with whatever we would need on the way there, (Just a lot of medical precautions) and then got ready to leave.

"We'll see you when we get back Shiro!" Naru told her happily.

"Good luck!" Shiro shouted at us in response. With that, we exited our room and began to walk to the other side of the Nest, where we were getting picked up by another Raven.

The platform to start an escort to a far away area was located at the opposite point of the Nest, so we had a bit of a walk before we got there. It was a bit inconvenient that the service that we were going to have to use on a near daily basis as we started to deal with harder missions was located as physically far away as possible, but it was nothing more than a minor annoyance. It wasn't anything that I don't do tenfold in training, so it didn't bother me much other than it being a bit of a time sync.

Nonetheless, Naru and I were fully prepared to go back to Myriad in order to accomplish some menial tasks. I may have over prepared us a little bit, as I ended up getting a lot of medical supplies for a simple mission that didn't consist of any combat, but better safe than sorry. After our first mission, I will never think I'm being over prepared again. After all, anything can happen, no matter how unexpected.

Naru and I were wrapped up in an idle conversation about random things when we finally made it to the other side of the Nest, and the platform in which we were to meet with our escort. The platform was a large golden-floored hexagon located at the edge of the Nest, so by looking out into the distance, all you could see are endless fields. There was a large staircase with the signature violet coloring that the Nest held leading up to the large golden hexagonal platform. We climbed said staircase and as soon as we set our paws down on the cold golden surface, we were approached by a vaguely familiar face.

"Hello, you're Kuro and Naru, yes?" The Altaria asked before widening her cloud-like wings from her blue body. "Of course you are! I remember you two from the applicants tournament!" Her tone changed from formal to energetic really fast. After all, when you realize that you're talking to other recruits, you tend to not feel the need to be formal.

"Hi… Aria, is it?" Naru greeted. I could tell she was still a bit taken aback from her change in energy. "It's nice to formally meet you."

"Likewise! Anyways, I heard you were going far away for a little bit, what does our boss have you wrapped up with?" She asked. I appreciated her friendly attitude, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't make feel the slightest bit uncomfortable. I didn't really know why, but it was just a strange feeling I had.

"We just have a list of things to take care of in Myriad." Naru explained. "She said that it would be more efficient to send one team that knows the area rather than send a different one every day to accomplish tasks that took little time to complete."

"I see. Well, I'll happily escort you there in record time!" Aria proudly stated. She then looked up in the sky, as if investigating something. "Hmmm… It's about noon now, so if we leave now, then I can get you there a little before night hits." She told us, to which we both nodded. "Alright! Climb on and then we'll soar!" Aria lowered her body for us two smaller pokemon to climb on. Naru first climbed onto her, and then sat somewhat close to her neck. I then followed and sat behind Naru.

"Are you sure you can support our weight?" Naru asked before we started to fly.

"Of course!" Aria energetically responded. "All of my training has been geared to strengthening myself physically ever since I decided I wanted to be an escort for other Ravens to get to their destinations. Plus, I've already escorted pokemon much heavier than two eeveelutions, so no need to worry!" Once she said this, a certain question popped into my head.

"Did you join the Nest to be an escort?" I asked her. She sounded like she changed her mind after getting accepted into the Nest, and I was a bit curious as to how that worked.

"So you *can* talk!" She started with, which made me slightly embarrassed. "Apparently, the way they have it here at the Nest, assuming you got in through the applicants' tournament, you can switch over to being an escort at any time if you so please. Since my skills greately adhered to being an escort, I decided to switch over. Plus, I meet a loooot of new pokemon this way, and I find it very pleasant!" I found it interesting how the Nest operates. You'd think that all those who were chosen from the applicants' tournament were important enough to the Nest, due to their combat ability, that they would be stuck in the field that they were accepted in, but apparently not.

"I didn't know there were different fields to the Nest on the first place." Naru said with a small sigh.

"I'm pretty sure the Nest recruits pokemon with combat abilities, ones who have medical talent, and ones who can escort other Ravens. At least, that would make sense to me." I said afterwards.

"You've got it!" Aria replied energetically. "The ones who got in from the applicants' tournament have free will to change to another path they're more suited to, but it doesn't work in reverse, the Nest is too picky about Ravens being able to defend themselves for that." She further explained. After everything was said, it made sense to me why it was structured that way. After all, if you have someone who is great at healing someone, but can't properly defend themselves, even if they never go on a mission that is supposed to have combat, it's still risky. After all, look at Naru and I's first mission. Adversely, if you have someone who may have good combat ability but is even better at, say, escorting others, than it would make sense for them to be able to switch. After thinking it over, I somewhat agreed with it, even know it had a few flaws.

"Well, you two aren't here to talk about how things work behind the scenes, so why don't we get flying?" Aria asked.

"Sure! Let's go!" Naru excitedly said, and I nodded. Admittedly, I was a little bit unnerved at flying on another pokemon at such a height, but I decided to trust in Aria and her training, whatever it was.

 _Not like I have another choice in the first place…_

With that, Aria began to fly, and I immediately felt the wind blow through my fur, as well as gravity's attempt to pull us back down as soon as she lifted off the ground. After gaining some altitude, the wind in my ears picked up, I felt the colder air, and we began to fly off to our destination.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Now, before I say anything, I need to address the elephant in the room. Why haven't I updated in so long? Well, my schedule hasn't really been agreeing with me lately. Right after I started school back up and had a proper schedule set, I thought it would be no problem to find time to write this, as well as keep up with everything else going on. Needless to say, I severely underestimated my work load, and I'm paying the price for it. I thought I could balance this with everything else, but I misjudged by quite a margin. Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing this or anything, I enjoy it way too much and I love providing something that other people will read and enjoy. I'm going to try my absolute hardest to make more time for typing this, I don't want to have to upload monthly, as that really feels too slow to me. However, if it's the only choice, then I'll go with it.

Now, enough of my excuses, time for actual author's note of fun and happiness. First off, I want to inform everyone that I have gone back and edited the first five chapters, so those are in much better shape now. I find it baffling to me that I re-read these things twice before I upload, and yet I still let a ton of grammar and spelling mistakes get through, as well as a few incoherent sentences. Now, I consider my grammar to be pretty decent, but I tend to mistype a lot of things, especially when I have to work from my phone. How I don't catch these when proofreading… I blame ADD.

Finally, I want to thank all of you who have stayed, regardless of the lack of updates as of late. I greately appreciate it, as well as all of your criticism, PMs, the usual. I am grateful for all of you who read this story, and I hope you enjoy it as I continue!

Also cringe name change…. Because why not?

See you next chapter!


	15. An unexpected encounter

**Kai**

I let out a small sigh as I made my way around the Nest with no real objective in mind. My protege was leaving for a week of missions in a town not too close to the Nest, so I wasn't training him at all until he came back. While this is only one of my responsibilities at the Nest, it's still what I put most of my time into, so not being able to do this for a while really is cutting down on activities to occupy my time. Although, it's definitely better than going on a mission for the Void, so I wasn't about to complain too much.

As I made my way around the Nest, I listened to all of the conversations that surrounded me, none of them having a set topic, just pokemon interacting peacefully with one another. Occasionally, I would find myself walking by one of the recent recruits, who all seemed to be improving at a steady rate. One that caught my eye though was the Gabite. Since his mentor is Aven, I expected no improvement whatsoever, especially since he was one of the recruits that was labeled as a threat. Aven had the authority to neglect training the Gabite, but he seems to be pushing him almost as hard as I push the Umbreon in our training sessions.

 _What's making you want to improve his strength? I know you have some kind of ulterior motive, but what could that be?_ I didn't know anything about Lucas himself, so I had no idea what kind of plans Aven had for him. Whatever they were, I knew they weren't positive though. I also recently began to worry about the Void interfering with the Nest more prominently in the near future. I've heard about a lot of the recent events that have been going on with the members of the Nest as of late, and the Void is beginning to push after the Nest more recently.

For example, I know Rage tried to kill Kuro not too far away from the Nest, but failed. The fact that he was so close to the Nest shows what the Void has in mind. They aren't going to launch a large-scale attack on them or anything, but I can tell they're trying to whittle down some of their members. Luna even called in the assassin to do some dirty work, so it's clear that she isn't messing around too much with Ravens anymore.

Luckily, none of these attacks have succeeded yet, and Kuro even managed to bring back the pokemon that Rage was trying to… Do something with. I know what kind of pokemon Rage is, so I know what he wanted to do with the young girl, which disgusted me. It was knowledge I wish I didn't have, Rage's MO is definitely an example of ignorance being bliss. Regardless of what he wanted to do with her, I was glad that my protege managed to save her, and I'm pretty sure him and his partner are now caring for her as well. At least, that's what it looked like when he showed up with the two of them in our most recent training session.

I was about to turn a corner while walking throughout the Nest, when I saw a small white blur come around the corner right in front of me and plant their face into my chest. The small pokemon almost fit under my legs without crouching down, which showed how small they were. Upon further investigation, I realized that I vaguely recognized this pokemon. Once I thought about it for a second, I realized exactly who this was, the pokemon I just had in my thoughts a few seconds ago.

The small Vulpix looked up at me, and I looked back down at her. For a split second, she looked like she didn't know what to do, but right after, her face shrouded itself with what looked like fear, and she back away from me slowly.

"I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean t-to run i-into you!" She said in a panic while bowing her head.

 _She's a timid one._ I thought to myself. I couldn't tell what she was like by the other day, as she just sat next to the Glaceon while I was focusing on training my protege. A thought suddenly hit me upon thinking this. _She saw me training Kuro, which would explain her fear of me, or what I assume is fear._ I gave a small sigh before directing my eyes at the Vulpix, trying my best to not look threatening.

"It was just a mistake, no need to apologize." I told her. I, once again, tried not to sound threatening, but it was a bit hard with the demeanor that I tended to have throughout ninety percent of my life. "What are you doing in such a rush?" I wondered why she was out and about like this, as I would expect that her new caretakers told her to not wander around the Nest like this.

"I-I was trying to f-find someone's r-room, but I k-kind of got l-lost." She told me, sounding almost ashamed. I admittedly felt bad for this Vulpix. She was just kidnapped and almost… Abused by a random pokemon she didn't know, and now she had her caretakers taken away from her due to a mission that they were well-qualified for. Not to mention, no matter how comfortable she feels with those two, she is still in a rather unfamiliar place, and the scale didn't help. Because of this, I felt the need to help her.

"Whose room are you trying to find?" I asked her. I hoped that I could help her find her way there, if anything.

"A-A Luxray and a Z-Zoroark's room. T-Their names a-are K-Kage and Vero." She told me through her stutters.

 _So they introduced her to them. I wonder if they're on a mission right now or not._ I wondered. Kuro and his partner, along with that Luxray and Zoroark were definitely a close group of friends. You could tell by the amount of time the two duos spend with one another, so it makes sense that, of all pokemon, Kuro and his partner introduced this girl to them. I wanted to help her get to their room, but sadly, I was also ignorant as to where it was.

"I'm not sure where their room is exactly." I told her. "But I can help you find it if you want me to." I saw her eyes light up slightly.

"T-That would be g-great, thank y-you!" She responded, bowing her head. After this, I began to walk to another part of the Nest, with the Vulpix following right behind me. I was a bit surprised that she was so willing to follow me after watching me beat up Kuro, but this gave me an opportunity to help her, so I wasn't complaining. Although, I couldn't help but wonder.

"Are you sure you're okay with following me? You're not scared?" I asked her. While I did want to help, I wouldn't feel like I was helping if she was uncomfortable with the situation, so I decided to ask to see if it would be better if I got another Raven to help her.

"W-Well," She started, sounding like she was contemplating what exactly to say. "K-Kuro and Naru told me t-that you weren't fighting for r-real, so I'm n-not scared." I was honestly surprised at her response, but at the same time, I guess that they would have had to tell her that the battling wasn't real, otherwise, what would she have thought it was?

"I see." I said. "That's good to hear." It did make me feel a bit better that I wasn't feared by the girl, despite the fact I just put a bunch of cuts and bruises on her new guardian. "I'm not sure exactly where the Luxray and Zoroark's room is, so instead, I'm going to take you to our leader and she'll show you where to go." I told her, but before I got a response, I heard a small rumbling sound. I soon deduced that it was the Vulpix's stomach, as she somewhat shyly put her head down after said noise was heard. Without saying anything else, I pulled out a large apple from the bag that I had hanging off of my neck and rolled it towards the Vulpix after she stopped walking. In response to this, she just looked at me with confusion.

"You're hungry aren't you?" I asked her after she didn't attempt to eat the fruit.

"B-But, this is y-yours, isn't i-it?" She timidly asked me.

"I have plenty of food. You can eat that. After all, you're the hungry one here." I told her, and she looked at me with a glimmer of surprise in her eyes.

"T-Thank you!" She said, bowing her head and beginning to eat the apple while we stood to the side of one of the Nest's many twisting paths. While I was thinking of the food subject, I noticed her stature was actually much smaller than a Vulpix of that age should have been. At first, I thought it was natural, kind of like Kuro's, but now I thought it was because of a lack of a proper diet. After all, she had only been with her two caretakers for a day or two, not nearly enough time to fix a possible dietary problem.

I tossed away the thoughts of her having a lack of food before Kuro took her in, as I imagined that would be agonizing for however long she had to deal with it. I was slightly tempted to ask her, but I was talking to a child, so I decided to hold off. I noticed that she had just finished eating, and she looked up at me again. After staring at me for a few seconds, she leaned her head down towards the ground.

"I-I'm sorry for being scared of you a-at first." She apologized. "B-But, you're helping Kuro get stronger, right? I-If you're helping him, than I don't think I need to be afraid!" She said before looking up at me again, but this time, something was different.

She was smiling.

I felt a wave of guilt wash over me as soon as I saw her face. This child was trusting me, thinking of me as someone who wasn't bad, thinking of me as someone who who can be normally interacted with. She thought all of this, yet didn't know that I was technically part of the organization that tried to capture her in the first place. Me not being able to do anything about the Void is partially the reason why she was in danger in the first place, and I couldn't forgive myself of that. I was nothing more than a monster.

"I'm glad you feel that way." I quickly said before turning my head away. I continued to lead her to Myra's office, but didn't say a word past that point.

* * *

 **Naru**

I was closing my eyes and letting the rushing wind pass through my ears. It wasn't every day that we went on a mission that was far enough to warrant and escort, so I was trying to enjoy the feeling while I had it. I thought I would be a lot more afraid of flying, but I ended up really loving the feeling, at least, once I dismissed the fear of being thrown off of Aria's back. Instead of being a rough ride that was scaring me, the flight was a smooth one that I didn't feel fearful of. I didn't know if Kuro felt the same way or not, as I wasn't able to read his emotions with him being behind me. I imagined that he was fine with it, but then again, it was also his first time flying along with mine, so anything was possible.

Multiple times during this flight, I attempted to talk to either Kuro or Aria, but the loud sounds of rushing winds cut out any noise I could possibly make without shouting. I was fairly certain that we were getting close to or destination at this point, mainly because I noticed the sun begin to go down, meaning we've been flying for… A while. I wasn't getting impatient or anything, but Aria told us that we'd be there around sundown, and if possible, I wanted to get at least one mission done or started before tomorrow. If we didn't get to Myriad before it got dark, then it would end up just being that much harder.

As if the legendaries themselves were listening to my thoughts, Aria began to slow down before halting. I looked down from where we stopped, and I saw the outline if a familiar town. I never really looked at Myriad from above, but it looked like a countless number of dots, all of different colors, making a rather abstract image. Aria turned her head around as best as she could and announced our arrival.

"Well, we're right above Myriad right now, time for us to begin our descent!" Aria enthusiastically shouted before starting to descend to the ground. "So how did you enjoy the flight?" I thought for a second before responding.

"I enjoyed it! The noise from the wind was a bit annoying, but other than that, it felt great!" I told her, trying to match her enthusiasm. I considered myself pretty enthusiastic, but it was hard to get to Aria's level of positivity. She gave off this aura that helped you get along with her easily, and even know I've only had one conversation with her, I could tell we could be friends rather easily.

"Great! And what about you, silent Umbreon?" She said the last part of that sentence trying to sound ominous, which got a chuckle out of me, and a sigh out of Kuro.

"I thought it was good. No complaints." He simply stated. It was a bit strange to hear Kuro act this quiet. I mean, he was always a quiet one to begin with, but when interacting with pokemon he's not familiar with in the slightest, his silence really stuck out. Although it is in his personality, I don't think Aria's constant mentioning of it was helping her in any way.

"I see. Well that's good!" She responded. "Hopefully I'll be the one to take you guys back too, it's a lot easier carrying two eeveelutions than a Tyranitar." She said with a sigh.

 _Has she actually had to transport a Tyranitar in the past?_

"Plus, I liked talking to the two of you! It especially got interesting whenever the silent Umbreon decided to give his input!" Aria stated with energy, making me need to stifle a laugh.

"Please don't tell me that's going to become a nickname…" Kuro said in a low voice.

"Of course it's going to become a nickname! I can't miss out on an opportunity like this! I've never been able to give someone a proper nickname, and it looks like you're my first victim!" Aria energetically challenged. _Her first… Victim?_

"Lovely…"

After Aria taunted Kuro some more, we finally touched down on the ground right outside of Myriad. I immediately looked at all of the multi-colored buildings and was hit with a wave of familiarity. I didn't think I would miss this town at all besides my house, but after taking one look at its details, my thoughts were proven wrong. I suppose I never disliked the town itself, just ninety percent of whom I interacted with in the town.

"Alright, see you two another time!" Aria lifted one of her cloud-like wings and waved before taking flight once more.

"Bye Aria!" I shouted as she rose higher. I saw Kuro raise one of his forepaws to wave. It seemed like he was going to live up to the nickname he was given by her, whether it was intentional or not. Once Aria reached a certain height, we watched as she swiftly flew through the orange-painted skies, presumably heading back to the Nest.

 _Geez, a round trip must be a bit of an ordeal for her._ I thought, before taking in the sights of Myriad's outskirts again. I almost forgot how large it was, the town may have rivaled the Void's ship. Then again, the name of the town did mean 'infinite,' so I suppose the size is an easy distinction to make. I began to walk towards the many buildings, Kuro following closely behind.

Once we made it into the busy parts of Myriad's streets, I turned to Kuro to give him a proposition before the sun left for the other side of the world.

"Alright." I started. "Kuro, I think we should start on some of the tasks we have to do now so we don't have to worry about time too much. The sooner we get this stuff done, the better!"

"I agree." Kuro said. "I think we should split off then. We'll be more efficient that way." He suggested. I thought about it for a second before nodding.

"Good idea! That's also a good way to split the workload." I said, getting a nod from Kuro. "But, will you be able to find your way around here? This place is pretty big after all, and you never lived here." I was a bit worried that Kuro would get lost, especially since he still barely knew his way around the Nest.

"I think I'll be fine. The first day I came here, I walked around a lot. Plus, this town has a lot of landmarks, unlike the Nest, so I think I'll be fine." He told me. "Although, I think you should take the mission to search for Void camps here. That seems like one that requires more knowledge about the town than I have." He said, and I nodded. I knew almost every nook and cranny of this place, and I was going to wipe it clean of the Void, assuming it was necessary.

"Sounds good! I kind of want to start on that one tonight since it'll probably be one of the longer ones." I told him. "What will you do?"

"I… I think I'll go check on the orphanage." He said. "That place really does sound beneficial, and after seeing the camp we visited for our first mission, I want to see if this one is similar in any way." That made sense, Kuro has said to me that he liked the way that orphanage handled itself, and I suppose he wanted to see if it was the same here, and if it wasn't than he would probably suggest ways to improve it.

"Alright! Good luck finding your way there!" I told him, and he gave a small chuckle.

"Good luck locating something that may not exist." He told me in response. "But, in all seriousness, assuming you do find something, be careful. The Void is still the Void after all."

"Right! I'll make sure I'm not too reckless!" I assured him, to which he smiled and nodded. "After you're done with your mission, we should meet up at my old house, assuming you remember where it is."

"I remember where, so I'll be there after I'm done."

"Alright! See you then!" I exclaimed. Kuro nodded his head once more and began to walk down a different road of town. I watched him until he turned a corner not too far from where we entered town and then began to walk in the other direction.

 _I should probably start with the back alleys that I used to always avoid… Then I'll check the outskirts… Then abandoned buildings._ I formed a plan in my head as to how I was going to thoroughly check Myriad for Void hideouts. I knew this town really well, so I wasn't worried about forgetting to check somewhere or missing an easy hiding spot. The only thing I was worried about was if I found something, and I was forced into combat. I did have my scarf draped over the Raven symbol on the side of my body, but even if they didn't know I was a Raven, I couldn't just sit there and do nothing if I knew I was talking to a Void member. Especially not in the town I spent most of my life in.

As I was walking down the streets of Myriad, passing by pokemon of all kinds minding their business, I couldn't help but feel a bit of nostalgia. Even know I was living in this town only a little under two months ago, I hadn't walked around the place since I was much younger, so I was able to see a lot of things I haven't seen in quite a few years. Mainly, a few shops my parents and brother used to visit a lot. All of them sold the same things, general appliances, but they all had different designs and colors on their interiors as well as lively employees. Because of this, as a child, I loved to visit all of them on a regular basis.

 _Oh how my life has changed…_

I was, in no way, dissatisfied with my current life, at least, my life from when I joined the Nest to now, but I couldn't help but remember the times I had before my life turned in the wrong direction. It all happened so fast, my life changed forever in one day. But then, years later, my life changed drastically again, and also, in the span of a day.

 _It all started with slamming my skull into Kuro's…_

I smiled at the memory of when Kuro and I first met, looking back on every last detail of the event. I was about to delve deeper into my mind, but I noticed a Quilava and Combusken acting rather strangely on the side of one of the streets I was walking on. I walked a bit closer to them, trying not to alert them of my presence. Once I was in range of their talking, I saw the two of them walk down one of Myriad's many small alleyways and turn a corner at the end of it.

I was suspicious, so I began to walk down the alleyway myself, feeling a bit of fear creep up on me. I shook my head as I was walking, trying to dismiss my fear. There wasn't anything confirming that the two were going to a Void base of any kind, but I wanted to make sure. After all, they did look like they were acting sketchy, and both had the same look of anticipation on their faces. I had no idea what this anticipation was for, but I needed to find out. I arrived at the corner of the alleyway, and slowly poked my head around it, looking for signs of the two pokemon. After scanning the secondary alley and finding a lot of irrelevant trash scattered all over the place, my eyes were brought to the two that were acting suspicious, and I immediately felt a jolt go down my spine as I retracted around the corner and back away, leaving the alleyway. They weren't Void members, but I did see the two of them performing certain… Actions. Actions that made my face light up brightly while walking down the streets of Myriad. I let out a sigh at what I had just looked at.

 _At least it looked consensual…_

I tried to erase the images I had just witnessed from my head as I walked away, looking for more suspicious actions.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I walked passed a familiar store that I went to the first time I came to Myriad. It was the store in which I bought the scarf and bag I'm wearing on my body. I had a minor flashback to the day I arrived in Myriad, but soon directed my thoughts on other things. I already obtained my bearings in this town by finding the area that I actually recognized, meaning I knew how to get to Naru's old house from here. I decided that I would use what I already know to not get lost in this monster of a town and be stuck out in the middle of the night. It wasn't quite nighttime yet, but the sky began to turn a deeper and deeper shade of orange with each passing second, so I wanted to get my location straight before I began searching for the orphanage I needed to check up on.

I still gawked in awe at most of this buildings in this town, as I looked at all of them a beautiful pieces of construction that I could not begin to fathom the complexion of. The Nest had a lot of extravagant buildings as well, but all of them share the same violet, red, and golden coloring, so none of them catch your eye as much as all of the buildings here. There were also a lot more pokemon roaming the streets here than Ravens that roam the Nest, but that is to be expected. Although, at the moment, I found myself in an area that consisted of nothing but an empty street that seemed to go on for about a mile. I wasn't too fond of crowds, so I didn't question it and just kept walking on the paved road.

As I made it about halfway down the street, a group of pokemon turned the corner at the end of it, and began to walk in my direction. As soon as I looked at the group, I felt a bit strange. I didn't feel threatened in any way, but the Hitmonchan in the front of the group just gave off a sort of negative aura that I didn't want anything to do with. Following this Hitmonchan were four others, all giving off a similar feeling. An Ariados, a Dragonair, a Rampardos, and a Lileep. I couldn't quite place my paw on the feeling I got from them. It wasn't something I was familiar with, not feeling threatened but feeling like they're not good to be around at the same time. Then again, my instincts are weird.

Both the group and I were about to cross paths near the end of the road, and I had just hoped they would all keep walking. Whatever this feeling was, I wasn't too keen on investigating it. For all I know, this could be a group of pokemon who try and sell me drugs or something. Right as we were about to pass each other, right when I thought I was going to be free of any confrontation with the group, the Hitmonchan placed its hand right in front of my chest, stopping me from walking. I looked to my right to see the Hitmonchan bent down slightly to match my height, and then smile at me. However, this smile wasn't a comforting sight, it just made me want to leave even more.

"You know, I haven't seen you around this town." He told me. "I tend to recognize faces, so I'm certain you aren't here often." _You really think you can recognize every pokemon in a town of this size?_ "Then again, I suppose I would recognize your pathetic size before your face." Right after this sentence left his mouth, I just sighed.

 _So they're a group of bullies… Explains the feeling I had earlier._ Without wanting to converse with a pile of negative intentions, I simply walked around the Hitmonchan's hand and began walking to the other side of the street again. Part of me wanted to just block them out and continue looking for the orphanage I needed to find, but I was glad I decided against it, based on what I heard from them next.

"I see, so this one's not so talkative, is he?" He said, to which I slowed down my walking but continued moving forward. "You know, he reminds me of the Glaceon. She never said anything back either, just cowered in fear behind her damn parents." This was followed with a few snickers from the rest of the group. That's when I stopped walking. It was clear to me who these pokemon were now. They were part of what made Naru's life hellish before she left for the Nest. Because of this, I felt myself begin to build up anger.

After a few moments passed, the group seemed to notice that I stopped, and then the Hitmonchan walked closer to me. Instead of walking away to the end of the road, I turned around and faced him.

"What? You want to talk now?" He asked me, his voice oozing with condescendance. "I don't know what you're going to say, but you look like you can't defend yourself, so choose your words carefully when talking to me."

 _Who does this guy think he is?_ I thought. Admittedly, I felt my anger build up more and more as I looked at this guy's face. It took a lot, and I mean a lot to make me angry if you're not a Void member, and these pokemon practically ruining the life of my partner was crossing that line. I noticed that none of them were younger than me, in fact, half of them, including the Hitmonchan, looked a few years older if anything. Because of this, I thought about if I would feel bad at all if I ended up hurting one of them. This weren't thoughts that I usually had, but my mind decided to make an exception for this group of idiots. However, after thinking for a second, just hurting them wouldn't solve anything, so I decided I would try and teach them something. With that sentiment in my head, I sighed, before finally opening my mouth.

"You really shouldn't judge a book by its cover." I said. "You never know what kind of pokemon you're talking to, and this isn't an exception."

"Oh?" He said before beginning to laugh uncontrollably, which was followed by the rest of the pokemon in the group. After he calmed down, he decided to give me the honor of a response. "Please. Look at yourself in a mirror. You're barely larger than a child, I'd probably knock your lights out with a minimal effort punch." He finished with a very cocky smirk. However, him saying this gave me an idea, which made me put on a smug expression as well, again, something I don't usually do.

"Try me." I simply said, raising my chin up. "Hit me as hard as you can." The Hitmonchan looked rather taken aback by my proposal. He dropped his cocky expression, and looked at me questioningly. I took this opportunity to rile him up more. "What's wrong? Starting to loose your facade of confidence?" I asked with a teasing tone. This pissed him off, and I could easily tell by his gritted teeth.

"Do you really want to die that badly?"

"Not that you can kill me."

"Do you really want your neck broken?"

"I can't see you hurting me in the slightest."

I saw the Hitmonchan's expression get more and more angry as I responded to his comments. Knowing who this guy was, it was admittedly satisfying. I wasn't just spouting nonsense either, this pokemon hasn't been beat up by someone ten times stronger than him on a bi-daily basis. For once, I was completely confident in what I was saying to another pokemon.

"We'll see about that!" The Hitmonchan walked towards me, and stood about an inch away. His right hand curled into a fist, and began to glow a bright white. "Not my fault if this breaks your neck!" With that, he brought his arm back, and swung his arm forward as fast and hard as he could, focus punching me directly in the forehead, right in the center of my golden ring. He looked like he put all of his effort into it, but despite that…

I didn't even budge. Despite him being a fighting type, and hitting me with one of the strongest fighting type moves, I barely felt a thing. This guy clearly hadn't trained himself a single day in his life, as a move like that should've hurt, even if only a bit. I decided to observe his expression, which warped from cockiness and anger to astoundment really quickly. The scene honestly made me want to burst out laughing, but I held it in and instead just lowered my eyelids and gave him an unimpressed stare.

"Is that really it?" I asked him in a monotone voice, knowing that would be the most insulting way to respond. "So much for breaking my neck, or coming remotely close to killing me." I deadpanned.

With that, he backed up a few feet and kept his stare on me. His face warped back into one of anger, but he didn't say anything, not knowing how to respond to his loss of the situation. Even if he didn't aim to break my neck, he was definitely expecting me to fly back, or at least flinch in pain. Sadly for him, I was in the middle of teaching a lesson.

"As I said, don't judge a book by its cover. Look where it has you now." I said, keeping my monotone voice. "Now, since you hit me with something that was aimed to make me feel the most pain possible, I want to respond by hitting you with the weakest form of offense I have." I backed up a few feet, and lunged towards the Hitmonchan. He looked surprised, but he didn't move. Once I was about an inch away from him, I slammed my head into his stomach. As soon as I did, I felt the wind get knocked out of him, and he took a bunch of steps back in a very fast speed. He began coughing vigorously, gripping his stomach in his hands before kneeling to the ground. I saw tears start to build up at the bottom of his eyes, and he replaced his coughing with loud moans of pain.

 _I really didn't hit him that hard…_ I thought to myself, but not feeling much regret for what I did. I could've hit him with a hyper beam or something, but that might have actually killed him. After his moans of pain began to calm down a bit, he looked back up at me, but with a very different expression. He looked fearful, and all of his followers in the group had the same complexion. I must say, it felt… Interesting for pokemon to be legitimately afraid of me. Other than when I first starting feeding Shiro, I think this is the first time, so I didn't really know how to react at first. I decided it was time for me to wrap things up with this group, not wanting to drag this out anymore than I needed to. I didn't get enjoyment from causing others pain, I just thought it was necessary in this case.

"I hope my point is clear to you now." I said to them, losing my monotone voice. "Oh, and just so you know, offence is easily my weakest battling attribute, and you took that kind of damage. Want to hear something interesting? Naru's best battling attribute is offence, and considering she's on an equal level as me, think of what she can do to you." I threatened. After all, if Naru wasn't a passive girl, she could probably freeze them all to death without effort.

"N-Naru?" The Hitmonchan said through his pain. "How do you know the g-girl with the parents who are fa-"

"You don't want to finish that sentence." I said with a low voice. It honestly came out a lot more threatening-sounding than I intended, but perhaps it was good that they knew I was serious. These pokemon already made Naru live through hell, I wasn't about to let them insult her parents any more than they may have in the past. Without waiting for another response, I walked to the end of the long street and turned the corner. I took a deep breath to calm the anger that I just had built up inside of my body.

 _Now… Where is this orphanage?_

* * *

Hello Readers!

I want to start off by saying that I have gone back and edited chapters 6-11, so all of those are now new and improved! I made quite a few stupid mistakes, which I fixed all of, (Hopefully) as well as added more detail to some parts I felt had weak presentations.

I also want to say that, with this chapter, this story has reached 100,000 words! This is by far the longest thing I've ever written, and the only piece of writing I would dare to say that I'm proud of. I know it's far from perfect, and far from finished, but I've put a lot of effort into this, and knowing that people enjoy reading it just makes me feel fantastic!

Now, a question. For the next few chapters, I will most likely be switching perspectives from the two in Myriad, to the ones at the Nest quite a bit. Now, would you guys prefer if I focused on one of these groups at a time? Or if I switched between them during chapters? Originally, I was going to do the latter, but I want other's input so I know what's best for the readers!

Finally, thank you all for PMs, reviews, follows, favorites, etc. My soul is positively enriched everytime I see another person follow, favorite, or I get a PM, it really means a lot!

See you next chapter!


	16. A surprise attack

**Kage**

 _One of these days… I'm going to actually damage him…_

I stood in the middle of Vero and I's room, stretching my sore muscles. I just finished a training session with Xen, but it left my bones aching a lot more than usual. I decided to battle a bit more recklessly than I like to, as I was getting close to doing real damage to Xen for the first time. Sadly, I failed in the end, getting nothing but a scolding and extra soreness from my reckless actions. Blitz wasn't even at training today either, so Xen had all of his focus on me, which is usually a good thing when it came to training, but in my case, it just caused me to get more hurt than I usually do. I really want to damage him at least a little bit in the near future, as I feel like I keep getting closer and closer, but he always pulls something out that just sends me into an endless loop of failing to hit him. I let out a large sigh and set myself down on my bed.

Vero wasn't here right now, she was self-training somewhere outside of the Nest for the day, and I'm usually stuck with Xen until past nightfall, other than this exception, so I wasn't sure when Vero actually got back from her self improvement. Come to think of it, I never really asked her how exactly she trains herself. I'd imagine that Kuro gave her some advice, or something to work on from his experience with Kai, but I wasn't one-hundred percent sure. According to her though, her self-training actually helps her a lot, so whatever she's doing, she must be doing it well. I started to glance around the room a bit, at a loss of what I really wanted to do. Because of this, my gaze landed on the picture I kept in the corner of the room like it has so many other times. Like all of those times, at first, I reminisced on the happy memories I had back with the rest of my tribe, but soon after that came the negative memories of what happened to them before I left. I shook my head quickly, trying not to think about it.

 _I need to do something… Sitting here is just going to make me think about it…_ I thought to myself. _Maybe I should go check up on Shiro…_ Shiro came to Vero and I yesterday with the assistance of Myra and, apparently, Kuro's mentor. She wanted to find her way to our room in order for her to get a better feel for the Nest, but ended up getting lost in the many twisting paths of the colossal place. It's really not surprising at all, after all, she's really young to be traversing around a place a large as this. _At least she didn't get into trouble._

I decided to stand up, despite my soreness screaming at me to rest, and left the room to go check up on Shiro. It was pretty bad timing that Kuro and Naru had to leave right after they took Shiro in, especially since she's had no time whatsoever to get acquainted with this place. I was glad that she was willing to at least meet Vero and I so she wasn't completely alone here for a week. Then again, Vero was the one doing most of the talking when we were introduced. I was never shy in any way, in fact, I would consider myself quite the opposite, but I was never really good with kids… Ever since I had to babysit some younger cubs when I was with my tribe, I could never control a child. I would mess up the most simple tasks such as making a child feel safe, and I always seemed intimidating to children, regardless of how gentle I try to sound. I had no idea why, but I always ended up intimidating others when I didn't want to. Maybe it was just in my personality no matter how much I tried to act the opposite way…

After a few minutes of forcing my sore muscles to transport me through the Nest, I made it to Kuro and Naru's room, which is also where Shiro was staying while they were away. I searched through the bag I was carrying around my neck and pulled out a key that Kuro and Naru lent to me to check on shiro for the week. Luckily, they trusted me enough not to rob them. _At least some of my peers aren't intimidated by me…_

I located the card-like key in my bag and picked it out in my maw before sliding it in the keyhole of the door. Unlocking doors was always a challenge for a quadruped, but when you live the same way throughout your life, you get used to adhering to annoying things. I really felt bad for those who started out with arms or hands and then evolved into something without those appendages. I imagine that it would be quite the adaptation, something a lot harder than shifting to a bigger version of what you're already used to.

 _Now that I think about it, Vero used to be a quadruped, didn't she?_

After fooling around with the lock on the door for a minute, I managed to successfully unlock it. I pushed the door open after putting the key back into my bag, and walked into the room. Kuro and Naru's room was exactly identical to Vero and I's. I imagined that all of the rooms in the Nest were identical, save for maybe the leaders. As far as I could tell, neither of them really brought anything to the Nest other than the bags and scarves they both wore all the time. Then again, I only brought a single picture, so I guess it wasn't too strange.

After glancing around the room a bit more, my eyes met with a white Vulpix sitting near the edge of the straw bed that she inherited from Kuro. She looked up at me, and gave a shy smile.

"H-Hi Kage." She greeted. I returned her smile, though, mine not being as bashful.

"Hey Shiro!" I greeted, trying to fuel myself with enthusiasm. "I came here to check up on you, how are you doing?" I kept my voice filled with the same energy I greeted her with, wanting to interact with someone younger than me without the intimidation factor.

"I-I'm doing well." She said, keeping her nervous smile. I knew her stutter didn't come from me specifically, as she had the same tone when Vero was talking as well, so I deduced that I wasn't intimidating her. Hopefully.

"That's great!" I exclaimed. "Just a suggestion, do you want to walk around somewhere around the Nest with me? It must be boring to sit here all day and do nothing, so why not get a little more familiar with this place?" I asked. I kind of felt bad for the Vulpix, having to sit around all day and do nothing, especially as a young child, can be one of the irritating things in the world. At least, I know that's how I thought of it back before I started to train with the older members of my tribe.

"S-Sure, I'll come!" She responded cheerily. I honestly couldn't read this girl at all. She was smiling, and sounded happy, but at the same time, I couldn't help but get a nagging feeling in the back of my head that she was uncomfortable.

 _I guess I'll just try my best to make her comfortable then._

"Alright! I'll show you more places here that you haven't seen, and maybe you'll get a better sense of direction in this place!" Shiro nodded in response and followed me out of the door to Kuro and Naru's room. We walked on the balcony right outside of their room and then went down the staircase that led to the ground level of the Nest. We began to walk down the path closest to the staircase, and I wondered where I was going to take Shiro. I figured that I'd show her exactly how to get to Vero and I's room first, and then just take her to the shop area, which would be another place that would be good for her to be familiar with. Even if she doesn't have any business there, that's where a lot of Ravens roam around, so if she needs help with something in the absence of the pokemon she knows, then she could go there.

As soon as I started to lead Shiro down one of the paths, I felt my muscles begin to heavily ache again. I was ignoring it for the most part, but every now and then I would feel a spike of pain that ended up being very distracting. Luckily, it wasn't so bad to the point it would leave me injured, but it was probably going to take much longer to heal after a day of walking. I could deal with it though, some soreness wasn't going to stop me from going about my life! That is, until I have to train again…

After a few minutes of walking, I wanted to try and start a conversation with Shiro. Because I wasn't to great at interacting with children, I took my time thinking about what to talk with her about. Instead of trying to discuss a random topic with her, I decided to ask her something I was admittedly curious about.

"Hey, Shiro," she turned her head to look at me. "Where did you end up yesterday when looking for our room? If you want, I can take you there and show you the way from that spot." I suggested. If she ever ended up lost there again, it would be good for her to know a way back.

"Umm," She took a few seconds to think. "I-I ended up a big, open area. There was a lot of grass, and no paths like there is here. W-When I realized I-I didn't know where I was, I f-found the closest path and w-walked down it until someone helped me." She explained. I thought for a second about the area she was talking about. The Nest did have a few open areas that didn't have dirt fields or anything to train, they were just there for Ravens to relax if they wanted to. I appreciated these areas, and if Shiro was somewhat close to the area we're in now, then I knew where she was talking about.

"I think I know where, so let's go in that direction!" I told her, getting a nod in response as we started to walk astray from the path we were currently on. "On another note, you found Kuro's teacher, what kind of pokemon was he?" I asked her. She seemed to think for a little bit before responding.

"H-He seemed nice, he gave me f-food when I was hungry, but he also didn't seem like he w-wanted to talk." She explained. I was admittedly a little bit surprised that he was described as 'nice.' I didn't know him personally or anything, but based on horror stories I have from Kuro, I expected him to be vicious. Then again, mentors aren't themselves when they're training others. I could tell that Xen was a very caring pokemon, but when we were training, he acted like he wanted to rip out my throat.

"I see. Well, I'm glad you ran into a good pokemon. But you should know, most of the pokemon here are nice enough to help you out if you need it, so don't be afraid to ask!" I told her, and she nodded. I don't think I met a single pokemon who wasn't fighting for a good cause here. The only one that left a bad taste in my mouth was Vero's old partner, Lucas. I got a very odd feeling about him the first time we 'talked,' he didn't seem like he wanted to be here, but maybe I just caught him on a bad day. We continued walking on the current path we were following before, when I noticed a large field to the right. Oddly, there weren't any pokemon accompanying the current path, or the field, which was very unusual.

 _Maybe everyone's just busy…_

I walked off of the path and into the middle of the open field, Shiro close behind me.

"Is there where you were yesterday?" I asked her. After all, there was way more than one of these fields around, so I wanted to make sure this was the one she found herself in when she was lost.

"I think so." She responded. "This place looks j-just like the one I was in yesterday." She nearly got through her sentence without stuttering, but sadly tripped up on one word. It felt like progress from the amount she stuttered before.

"Alright! Now I'll show yo-" I cut off my own sentence slowly, when I saw a vaguely familiar pokemon walk in front of me. It was a Gallade, and there was only one Gallade that I've seen in my life, and it was the one I beat in the applicants' tournament. However, there was something different about him this time. He had a nasty scar over his left eye, preventing sight from it. I assumed he got it from a mission he went on after the tournament, so I brushed it off as not important. He also had a necklace with a strange stone hanging from his neck, and it looked like more than an accessory.

 _Why does this guy give me such a weird feeling..? Is it because he's the leader I beat in the applicants' tournament?_

Not being able to finish my thoughts, The Gallade walked a few steps closer to me, before drawing his eyes to Shiro. I looked back at Shiro, only to see her eyes much wider than they were before. She also started to shake, and just looked terrified overall. This wasn't a normal reaction, so I turned back to the Gallade with a questioning gaze. However, when I did, he had one of his blades raised in the air, and was giving me a death stare.

"This isn't anything personal, but I need that Vulpix." He said swiftly, before beginning to swing his blade down at me. I just barely managed to jump out of the way, my muscles screaming in pain as I did so. After I jumped away, he pushed after me and crossed his blades, seemingly ready to decapitate me. I ducked under his blades just as he uncrossed them to slice me, missing my an inch. I used the opportunity to charge and launch a thunderbolt as quickly as I could. From point blank, I hit him with a very weak bolt, as when I don't charge any electricity, using electric attacks was more of a defensive maneuver than an attack. The shocks going through his body did make him back up a bit however. After taking a few steps back, he cast me a glare, as if he expected me to just be a victim to his attacks. I was easily able to dodge them, but the soreness in my muscles was getting worse do to the overexertion. I sucked up the pain though.

"What are you doing!?" I yelled at him. It was clear to me that this wasn't the same Gallade leader that I battled at the applicants' tournament, and I wanted answers. After staring each other down for a few seconds, I noticed something on his chest. It was something I've never seen firsthand before, something I've only heard the description of. It was a hand surrounded in an ominous spiral. It was the symbol of the Void.

 _Why is there a Void member in the Nest!? How did he even find this place, knowing where Shiro was!? Why does he want Shiro in the first place!?_ I mentally screamed questions at myself as I charged my body with electricity, which was very painful, due to my soreness.

"You're none of my concern. I have no quarrel with you, just give me the Vulpix and I'll leave." He said in a monotone voice, but I can tell he was hiding some kind of emotion behind it.

 _Like hell…_ I crouched down, ready to defend Shiro, regardless of how much pain I was in. I wasn't about to let a child get taken by some Void sociopath.

Realizing that I wasn't going to cooperate, the Gallade lifted his blades, which began to glow. He shot off five purple projectiles, aimed to dice me to pieces. Too bad for him, this isn't the first time I've dealt with this. I read the projectiles and sidestepped each of them, before approaching the Gallade at a steady pace. I would have outright lunged at him, but I didn't want to break one of my legs, considering how much I was pushing myself past what I should be. Once he realized I wasn't being as aggressive as I could be, he decided to rush at me. He swiped his blades at me, one after another vertically, aiming to cut down straight into the top of my head. I managed to keep up my pace and dodge each one, but I felt myself getting sloppy. I couldn't move like I wanted to because of my body's current condition, so I started slipping up more and more as I dodged his blades. Eventually, he landed a slash, not on my head, but into one of my shoulders. Luckily, I moved enough so it wouldn't pierce, but he still drew blood from the slash, although, it didn't hurt much, and didn't cause any significant damage. It was almost like a paper cut. Regardless, I realized that if the situation continued as is, I would lose, so I jumped back to put some space in between us. He gave me a glare and bent his body, looking like he was going to rush me.

To be honest, I didn't know what to do. I couldn't fight him head-on due to my body's current exhaustion, and he could easily dodge any projectile I shoot at him due to the predictability of it. I was feeling so… Frustrated. I knew that if I hadn't pushed myself too hard to try and damage Xen, I wouldn't be in this situation right now. I would be able to fight in my element, up close and personal, not step back because I was being pressured. I'd imagine my face contorted into some kind of angry expression, because the Gallade eased up on his stance and gave me a smirk.

"What's wrong? Can't keep up Raven?" He taunted. I could care less about his teasing, knowing that he was just trying to get under my skin, but I knew it was true at the moment. I couldn't keep up in a close range battle with my current condition, and that is what angered me.

"Why are you even here? What do you want with Shiro?" I asked him in a low voice. I didn't want him to catch just how mad I was right now, so I tried not to shout. In response, he just laughed.

"To be honest, I came here because I caught wind of a certain pokemon living here, the pokemon who gave me the lovely scar I have on my eye." He started to sound spiteful. "However, I then heard that the same pokemon also got away with this Vulpix, and since I know they were living here, you can say I have two motives to be standing in front of you right now." He explained. "Also, Shiro? You gave her a new name? That's interesting, too bad she's going to abandon it momentarily." He shifted back into his original battle stance, and I went back into my own. _He dodged the question asking why he wants her… But I guess that doesn't matter right now!_

He rushed at me once more, and I knew I was running low on options. Because of this, I engulfed my body in a strong electric charge, and stood my ground. As he approached, I mentally prepared myself for the pain I was about to experience. He ran past me and ended up on at my left flank, but as I was in the process of turning my body around, he stabbed one of his blades into the side of my body. I let out a groan in pain, but I knew this was going to happen. I saw the Gallade begin to flinch, as he was getting shocked by the enormous charge I had stored within my body. While he still had his blade in my side, I released the charge I had been building up. I let out an intense blast of electricity, coursing from my body to his immediately. He screamed out in pain, I smelt the skin on his body begin to burn. Taking advantage of the current state he was in, I swung my body around in a circle and smashed the center of the his body with a sliver glowing tail. He flew back a decent distance, and fell onto the ground. I followed not too long after.

I took in a lot of large breaths, feeling not only the soreness from my overuse of muscles, but also the deep blade wound that I had in on my side. It was leaking out a lot of crimson liquid as well, so I hoped the Gallade was done for, if he got up and hit me any more, I would be at risk of bleeding out. I lifted my eyes and looked at my opponent, watching him convulse on the ground from the massive electric shock I just sent him. It wasn't enough to fry his brain or anything, but it certainly hurt. I then looked at Shiro, who was standing not too far away from where we started, but she had a terrified stare in her eyes, and was shaking uncontrollably. I was glad to realize that she was okay, but I really wished she didn't have to see this, especially since I have a near-fatal wound open on the side of my body.

I was about to say something to Shiro, but I quickly realized that I could barely speak in the first place. Once I tried, the pain in my body shot up like a rocket and I only let out a small croak, followed by more pained groans. I heard similar sounds close to me, and I turned my head back to the Gallade.

Only to see him standing.

"You… You have a lot of nerve… to hurt me like that…" He said in a very threatening voice. He then turned his eyes to mine and observed me, before cracking a smile. "But… I got you better… Didn't I?"

He wasn't wrong. As much as I didn't want to believe it, he definitely disabled me from fighting much more. I might, might have been able to walk, but I couldn't move swiftly enough to actually battle someone. The Gallade began to walk towards me slowly, and I felt fear creep into my body. It's been a long time since I was legitimately afraid of someone standing in front of me… A long time. But this almost matched the experience back then. Almost. Once he got close to me, he leaned down and put his face right in front of mine.

"You put up a good fight, more than I expected. But it ends here. I would have spared you if you just gave me the Vulpix, but you pissed me off too much. So now, you get to die." He rose one of his blades again, ready to plummet it into my skull. There wasn't anything I could do to resist at this point, and I even felt my consciousness start to fade. Was I really about to die just like that? After spending a month meeting new pokemon, helping those who need it, was I really going to get killed by the first Void member I tried to battle? I looked up at the Gallade standing above me, and I saw his arm tense up. He was about to stab through my skull, impale my brain, and kill me. Right in front of a young child at that. I wanted more than anything to be able to get up, fight back, do something, but I couldn't move. I was in the middle of accepting my fate when I saw a green blade begin to fly towards my head, ready to end my life.

Something else entered my vision though, something I didn't immediately decipher at first. Whatever it was slammed into the Gallade's face, knocking him back a few feet, right onto his back. I turned my head to the source of the attack, only to see Shiro standing closer, still shaking heavily. _Did she just… Attack him?_

It was the last thing I expected from the terrified Vulpix, but she had actually shot an attack at the Gallade. It looked like a small ice shard, and it just saved my life. Shiro just saved my life. She looked at me, and her gaze was now not only terrified, but it had a hint of concern, worried about my condition. Because of this, I tried my best to push myself off the ground, but after raising about an inch, my body yelled at me to stop, to which I fell to the ground again, sending a new wave of pain through my body. I let out a groan, but then saw something out raising out of the corner of my eye.

Of course, the Gallade was standing back up.

I honestly hoped that Shiro somehow managed to knock him out or something, but I guess that was wishful thinking. He rose to his feet, and wobbled a bit. It looked like the blunt hit to his head at least dazed him a bit, but he quickly straightened himself and glared past me. He set his glare on Shiro.

"You…" His voice began to lower even more than before. "You little brat!" He held up both of his blades and a small ball of light formed between them. He then pointed the light at Shiro. "You know, you're wanted back dead or alive, and you just made that decision for me!" With that sentence shouted, he launched the ball, aimed right at Shiro. I looked at her as her eyes widened again, and she didn't move. I tried with all my might to lift myself off of the ground, but to no avail.

 _She… She can't get hit by that… She'll die!_ I tried again, this time getting a bit of leverage, but still didn't have the strength to move. The attack was inches away from Shiro at this point, and I wanted to shout at her to snap her out of shock, but I still couldn't find my voice. The attack was about to make contact with her, but a small group of small black tendrils came from out of my sight and pulled her away, causing the attack to miss her and explode on the ground not too far away, kicking up a lot of grass and dirt in the process. I looked to where Shiro was pulled, and then saw her in the arms of someone that made my face light up.

Vero saved her.

Vero had Shiro in both if her arms, glaring at the Gallade responsible for the attack, who was just looking at her with a curious gaze. Vero's eyes then landed on me, and I saw her expression change. She put Shiro down and whispered something to her really quickly before running over to me. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see her.

"V..Vero…" I managed to croak out. My voice didn't sound good though, in fact, me speaking may have just made her more worried. She ran to my side and crouched down before reaching my bag and tearing off a small portion of it. She then stuck it on the source of a waterfall of blood that was coming from my side. I flinched when she put pressure on it, but I knew it was going to heal me, so I beared with it. After she was done preventing me from bleeding out, she glared back at the Gallade before standing up.

"Stay down Kage, if you get hurt any more, it might end up being permanent." She told me with concern. I just nodded in response, as talking was a bad idea at this point, especially considering how hard I was trying to remain conscious. I watched as Vero and the Gallade approached each other, until they were standing about five feet apart. They both held a glare of anger on one another.

"Another one…" The Gallade said. "Why don't you just let me do what I need to do, then leave." He crouched down, ready to fight again, but I could definitely tell that I did some damage to him. He didn't walk away from that blast of electricity without a scratch, not by far.

"Like I'd ever do that. You're a Void member, I'm a Raven. I'm not allowed to let you have your way." She responded, before putting her claws up.

The two started at each other for a few seconds, trying to gauge what the other was going to do. This stalemate was quickly broken by the Gallade running at Vero, starting with their blades crossed just as they did with me. Vero responded by ducking down and getting behind him, and shooting off a stream of dark energy from right next to him. The Gallade just barely managed to dodge it before attempting to slash at Vero with his blades. Instead of dodging, she engulfed her claws in a dark shadow, and they almost looked as if they expanded out. She then countered every slash that the Gallade tried to hit her with, trading blow for blow. They kept at this for a few seconds, just clashing with each other repeatedly. However, Vero got a hold of the Gallade's pattern, and then managed to parry him, making him backpedal a bit. Vero then took the opportunity to land a hard slash right on his stomach, creating three red lines in their place. The Gallade grunted in pain, but vero didn't let up. She extended a large amount of small tendrils from her arms and used them to grab onto the Gallade on both sides. She then pulled him towards her and slammed her claw right into one of the wounds she just created. The Gallade screamed in response, but she wasn't done with him yet. Vero detached her tendril from one side of his body before swinging him around so his back was to her. She then planted another heavy slash, just like the one on his stomach, but on his back, to which he responded with a similar scream. After this, she fully detached her tendrils, and jumped off of the ground, kicking the Gallade's back right on his wounds with both of her feet, sending him flying before doing a backflip to land on her feet. Watching her move eloquently like that was quite the alluring sight, it was clear why she was accepted to be a Raven.

The Gallade was doubled over a few feet in front of Vero, trying his best to cover the wounds that Varo had just given him, and then worsened. He was taking in heavy breaths and constantly moaning in pain, which was understandable with what she did to him. He turned his head to look back at Vero, who was walking towards him slowly.

"Leave. Now." She said in a stern voice. In response, the Gallade just gave her an angry glare. He put his head down, the anger on his face increasing greately.

"Twice…" He muttered. "This is the second time… I've been pushed down and threatened by someone. I… I told myself I wouldn't let this happen again…" The Gallade then slowly stood up, and Vero got back into a defensive position. He gave her another angry glare, but then his expression changed to one of… Desperation. "I let this happen again…" The stone on his necklace began to glow slightly, and that glow started to spread to his body. I then had an epiphany as to what the stone was and gritted my teeth.

 _If he uses that… Will Vero be able to keep him at bay?_

The glow slowly started to spread around more of his body, and he put on a disgusting-looking smile. One that a murderous psychopath would put on. But as soon as the glow enveloped more than half of his body, his smile dropped, and the glow instantly vanished.

"No… I promised I would only use it for him…" He muttered to himself. _What is he talking about..?_

The Gallade put a blade up in the air, and a three, thin purple circles surrounded his body. Right after, he just… Vanished. There was no sign of his body, or the rings he had just summoned in the place he was just standing. The only thing left of him was the blood he left behind. It took my mind a second to register what he just did, but after realizing he probably just teleported away, I let out a deep sigh, hoping he was gone for good.

Vero, presumably coming to the same conclusion as me, walked away from the battle scene, now just a field of grass covered in burns and blood. She walked over to me and crouched down, also motioning to Shiro that it was safe now, to which she also almost collapsed onto the ground out of relief. Vero turned her eyes to me.

"How are you holding up?" She asked concerningly. "I managed to stop your bleeding, but your injuries go beyond that." _You have no idea…_ I thought to myself. I tried my best to summon any semblance of my voice.

"I… I've been better." I said with a small chuckle. "T...Thanks for the save though, I don't want to think of what would have happened if you hadn't shown up." I said slowly, trying my best not to pass out.

"I was just on my way back from training when I saw you on the ground with an awful wound. Then, I saw that Gallade shoot off an attack at Shiro, and I intervened." She said before sighing. "Thank Arceus I left when I did, otherwise that could've ended much differently. But, who exactly was that?"

"I… Have no idea. Apparently he was… here to find another Raven, and take Shiro…" I told her, trying my best not to pause, but I could still barely talk.

"What? To take Shiro?"

"I'll explain more when we… Get back to our room…" I felt my voice getting more and more quiet. Vero just nodded in response. I saw Shiro approach from my peripherals, and I turned to face her. She still looked shaken, to which I didn't blame her. However, I needed to tell her something before I inevitably passed out.

"Hey… Shiro…" I called out. She turned her head to look at me, and I smiled at her. "Thank you… For saving me… Back there…" I told her. "I… Probably would… Be dead right now… If it wasn't for you…" It became harder and harder to speak as I felt my body wear down more. She just shook her head in response.

"No, you saved me, I need to thank you!" She said, but her voice sounded far away. However, no matter how quiet it sounded, I did notice something different about it.

She didn't stutter.

It looked like she was comfortable around me now, enough not to stutter. She was probably the first child to not be afraid of me…

With that thought in mind, I smiled to myself, and drifted into a blank sleep.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Another chapter done a lot quicker than I expected it to be. Somewhere in the middle of typing this I kind of… Blocked out everything around me and typed at an unusually fast rate, at least, compared to what I usually do. I was expecting this portion to be around three-thousand words, but when I checked the word count and saw I was already past six-thousand… I was rather surprised. But that's a positive thing, sooo positivity!

Also I just want to be clear in saying that Kage isn't dead. When I was typing the last part of this chapter, it honestly felt like I was typing a death scene, and I didn't really mean for it to come out that way, but it kind of did soooo that's a thing.

I want to thank all of you peoples who have sent me PMs, reviews, etc. I love every time I get one of these and it's not telling me to go drink bleach, so thank you to all who have sent them!

See You Next Chapter!


	17. The orphanage

**Core**

I walked down one of the paths in the middle of the Nest, having just conversed with Myra about a certain event that took place earlier today. We had a security breach, and it nearly resulted in both a murder and a kidnapping. The Nest has many guards stationed throughout its exterior in order to stop unwanted pokemon from entering. These guards recognize nearly every Raven in the Nest, and even if they don't know someone by face, they would check for the Raven insignia somewhere on said pokemon's body. _The security of the Nest has never failed us before, so how did a Void member get within our walls?_

I ended up pacing in circles in the open field in which two pokemon were attacked. Kage, and the small Vulpix that Kuro took back to the Nest known as Shiro now. The two of them were just on a walk, Kage, wanting Shiro to get more familiar with the place, but they were approached by a Gallade with a scar over his left eye. The Gallade attacked Kage without being provoked, and due to Kage not being in any condition to fight from events transpired previously in the day. Because of this, the Gallade ended up putting Kage at the mercy of his bladed hands, but not without taking a few hits in the process. Right when he was about to end Kage's life, Shiro apparently stopped him from doing so, although, I don't have details yet, as Kage still hasn't woken up. All of the information I have comes from Vero, who arrived on the scene just fast enough to make sure nobody got hurt. After she prevented the deaths of Shiro and Kage, Vero mopped the floor with the Gallade, who clearly wasn't a match for our stronger Ravens. Kage probably would have beaten him with ease had he not been in a bad condition. After all of this transpired, the Gallade looked as if he was going to mega-evolve, but then stopped the transformation halfway through, before mumbling something and just… Teleporting away.

That was the whole story, at least, until Kage woke up. Most of it past the Gallade getting into the Nest in the first place made sense, but that, along with one other part had me scratching my head. The Nest has an invisible field set around it by some of our most talented psychics. This field should prevent anyone from teleporting in or out of the Nest at all times. We initially had it so random civilians wouldn't find the place on accident with a lack of control in their teleportation, but it also inadvertently made it so no Void members we may hold inside of the Nest can get away without passing through the entire organization. The barrier did its purpose, but this made me question just how the Gallade teleported out of the Nest. Knowing that he was able to teleport out could explain how he got in the Nest, but knowing how he did is a whole other story. Our own leaders can't break through the barrier, so how did he get through it?

I let out a sigh and kept walking in circles, trying to think of something… Any reason why the Gallade was able to get in and out of the Nest via teleportation. Sadly, nothing came to mind. _Can the Void possibly have something that overrides our psychics? If so, that's a terrifying thought._

It wouldn't be the first time the Nest considered the threat of outside influence being able to breach our security measures, so we did have a few solutions in mind. Because the breach in question involved the Void however, we wanted to take no risks whatsoever. This meant reaching out to a few pokemon that the Nest has a close affiliation with. These pokemon were of quite a high standing as well, ones that aren't usually associated with anyone without wiping their memories afterwards. Due to our lack of steady interaction with them, I wasn't sure how they would react to us asking for help after such a long time after their offerings, but there was no harm in trying.

 _After all, we haven't spoken with them since before Storm and Blade passed… I wonder if they would be interested in meeting their son…_

I stowed my thoughts away and began to head towards an exit to the Nest, ready to seek out a bit of divine help.

* * *

 **Kuro**

 _Landmarks or not, this place is really starting to confuse me…_ I continued walking through the various populated streets of Myriad, weaving between all kinds of pokemon of all ages. My goal was still to find a specific orphanage that recently started its operations, but not asking for directions was really starting to bite me. I had a decent bit of confidence in my abilities to navigate through a town, despite not really knowing where I was going, but I was figured out pretty soon that my confidence in myself was fairly misplaced. I found myself revisiting certain areas that I have already traversed through a few times, as well as getting plenty of questioning looks from the many pedestrians I walked past. I was able to ignore the looks for the most part, but the more I aimlessly wandered around, the more I began to lose by bearings in this monster of a town. _Note to self: Never explore anywhere without a map._

I turned one more corner on the road of another busy street, getting pretty close to giving in and saving this task for tomorrow, but just as I was about to call it quits, I found my salvation. I looked further down the street, watching as a Gardevoir walked into a building that matched the description I was given. The building was rather small compared to the others towering over its right and left. It sported an orange exterior with a pattern of diagonal white stripes cutting through the solid wall of orange in an X pattern. The rooftop was slanted upwards, its lowest point being right above the front door, its highest spreading to the back of the building. I walked closer to it and noticed that the front of the building had a distinct lack of windows. Being enthralled that I finally located my designated building, I hastily walked towards it, arriving at the front of the main door. It had a rather plain-looking wooden material, but there were a few starts painted on it in varying colors. They did look a bit sloppy, but it added to the otherwise plain wooden door. Not wanting to waste anymore time, I pushed the door open with my head, and then walked in.

As soon as I entered, I took in the interior of the small place. Most of the walls were painted a solid white, a few brown-colored shelves interrupting the single color. Atop these shelves laid a multitude of items, from inflatable balls to small contraptions that looked as if they were handmade out of a strange material that almost looked like paper, but slightly more thick. In front of me sat a large desk, with no pokemon attending it at the moment. _Guess they're short on staff if the place just opened._

I walked up to the desk and put my two forepaws on it in order to see the top of it. I noticed that the desk was completely clear, save for a small bell that was presumably for calling someone here. Not knowing how else to find the one running this place, I moved one of my forepaws onto the top of the golden bell, before tapping on it. A single loud ring exited the bell and made its way through the building, echoing a few times through the empty room. After a few second passed, I heard a few tapping sounds, as if someone was walking. Soon after, I watched as a Gardevoir, the same one that I saw enter the building, walked out from around a corner past the desk. They walked up to me a put on a nervous smile.

"Hello there! Can I help you?" He asked me, sounding just as his smile looked. I assumed he was new to this kind of job, otherwise he most likely would have sounded more confident. Regardless, I responded with a somewhat nervous smile of my own.

"Hello." I simply started, not really what else to say. Even after a month and a half at the Nest, I wasn't entirely confident with my abilities to interact with others. "Umm… I'm here on a job to see what exactly you're doing with this orphanage." I told him, sounding a lot more awkward than I would have liked.

"Oh! Are you a Raven?" He asked me with a bit more energy in his voice than before. I just nodded in response. "I was told someone was coming to check up on this place. I actually have a few ties with the Nest, so I was informed that someone was coming to inspect this place." I was slightly caught off-guard by the fact he referred to the Nest by name, as that wasn't exactly public information, but if he had ties, than I suppose it made sense. "I'll show you where all of the kids here are. My name is Cyan by the way." He motioned for me to follow him and began walking towards the corner he came from earlier.

"My name is Kuro." I told him. "Where did you find the children that are here? I didn't think there would be many parentless kids in a place like this." Myriad seemed like a nice place, with a few hiccups of shady pokemon and bullies here and there, but for the most part, the place was rather nice.

"Actually, none of them are from Myriad itself, because this orphanage is new, I actually just took in my first group, which was brought to me by an elder who said he couldn't care for them anymore." Cyan explained as we walked down a hallway sharing a white color with the main entrance. "There's six of them right now, but I have plenty of space here, so if I find anymore orphans, than I won't hesitate." He stated proudly. I was glad that the owner of an orphanage had this kind of conviction. If not, then the kids would just suffer.

"Are you the only one that works here? Or do you have employees to help out?" I asked him, taking notice of our lack of passing anyone in the building.

"As of now, I'm the only one working here." He said. "Like I said, this place just got built here, so I haven't had a chance to try and employ others, but I'll be enough until more children arrive here." We arrived at another corner at the end of a hallway and walked along it. Once I had a line of sight of what was around the corner, I saw a group of six small pokemon, all doing their own thing in a rather open room that had about twelve doors along the its walls. The walls shared the same white color as the rest of the building, but each of the doors was a dark red, which made a very interesting contrast to the rest of the room. It wasn't unpleasant, but it didn't really stick out either. I looked along the room to see a similar pattern of shelves lining the walls, but these were almost full of miscellaneous objects. I assumed they all belonged to the children that were staying here. I decided to turn my eyes to the group of children, but as soon as I did, I felt something tug at the back of my mind.

I looked at a six pokemon, all sitting around different parts of the room, doing their own thing. Some of them were playing with one another using random objects to fuel their active imaginations, while other were silently sitting by themselves, seemingly resting. I saw a Shinx, a Snivy, a Ralts, a Shieldon, and Eevee, and an Espeon. All of them looked around the same age, but there was something screaming at me from the back of mind. Something telling me that I knew who these children were.

"These are the ones brought to me recently. Apparently, they went through something in the past that made their protector realize that he couldn't do anything to help them, so they were brought here." Cyan explained, as some of the kids were alerted to his presence. As they looked at him, he just waved at them, while I searched by thoughts. After going through my head for a few moments, I arrived at a possibility, based on what Cyan had just told me.

"Well, it's good they have a place to stay at least." I commented, before continuing to put pieces together in my mind. "Hey, the one that brought these children here, they wouldn't happen to be an elderly Blastoise, would they?" Cyan looked at me with a surprised gaze.

"How did you-" The Espeon in the group ran over to the two of us and almost bumped into me before stopping themselves. They looked into by eyes, being about the same height as me, and admittedly making me a bit uncomfortable.

"Is that you Kuro!? I never thought I'd see you again!" The Espeon exclaimed, leaving me in a slightly confused state. If this was part of the group I was thinking about, than there was no Espeon present there, but there were eight energetic Eevees, so it didn't take too long for me to determine that this was one of them. As for which one, I was able to tell by their voice.

"Shine, is it?" I asked, wanting to make sure I didn't get their identity wrong. The Espeon hastily nodded its head up and down at a fast pace, and smiled at me. I tried my best to return the smile with the gravity that he had. "I didn't recognize you at first, congratulations on your evolution!"

"Thanks!" He responded with enthusiasm. "I was a bit bummed out at first because I wanted to be an Umbreon like you, but I love being an Espeon! Controlling things with my mind is awesome!" I chuckled slightly at the energy that Shine had. A month certainly changed nothing about the Eevee who bombarded me with questions on by first mission.

"Are you familiar with this one?" Cyan asked from by left and I nodded in response. Shine then walked in front of him and smiled.

"Kuro talked to me at my old camp, and him and his partner taught us all a bunch of stuff!" He exclaimed, not dropping his enthusiasm for a second. "He also saved me and my friends from some scary ship! He battled a bunch of bad pokemon that were trying to hurt us, and made sure that all of us got out safely!" As he was explaining, Shine moved around and tried to mimic how I looked while I was fighting off Void members in their base.

"You were on a ship? What brought that on?" Cyan turned to me as he asked the question.

"That's… A long story." I gave a small sigh and prepared myself to explain. I told him about everything that happened that day, from the moment we arrived at the camp in order to deliver a small parcel, to when a large cloud of purple mist invaded the camp, knocking all of us out. I explained how I was there with my partner and a friend, and how the three of us ended up separated with the three groups of children from the camp. I explained how the three of us all fought through Void members in order to get further into the craft, until we found a suitable place to escape. I told him about how I blew the children off of the ship with me, and how I managed to keep any of them from getting hurt from the fall, not specifically mentioning the state of pain that I was put into afterward. The only thing I fully left out was the encounter that I had with Luna, because I never like to look back on how I completely froze in front of a dangerous adversary like her.

"Wow… To think that was your first mission…" He commented.

"It made an interesting impression on the three of us, that's for sure." I told him, before turning to Shine again. "Speaking of that day, where are the rest of the kids that were at that camp back then?" I asked him curiously. As soon as I did however, I saw Shine's ears droop down, and his expression drop from the energy he held before.

"Not too long ago, we got attacked by a more weird pokemon, they reminded me a lot of the ones that were on the ship." Shine shuddered slightly. "We were split up again, me and the rest of the pokemon here were with our grandfather, but he brought us to this place because he said he was afraid of not being able to protect us if we get attacked again. After that, he left to try and find the other pokemon that we were with." Shine's tone had noticeably dropped from the massive amount of energy he had a few moments ago into a state of melancholy. I didn't blame him. Being separated from everyone you know can't be the best feeling, especially after what happened when I was there. The group was, without a doubt, shaken from the experience, and being separated immediately after can't help how they feel. I felt a bit of anger rise within me, as I still hadn't fully vented after running into that Hitmonchan, but I managed to suppress it. To this Espeon, I was a Raven, someone to look up to. I couldn't let my emotions take the reigns of my body, especially in front of him. The situation still made me think about the Void though. Beforehand, the Void was something that hid within the shadows, killing innocents for no reason, never revealing themselves outright. But now, the Void had attacked the same camp of kids twice, not trying to cover their tracks in the slightest.

 _Why did they suddenly decide to not care about others finding out about them? What brought on the change in approach of their 'work?'_ I angerley thought to myself. With these methods, the Void would be acting out a lot more often, assuming that their not worrying about being open with who they are and what they're trying to do anymore. I mean, the Void took us all on to their base without even monitoring us at all times. Sure, they may have not expected Ravens to be on board with them, but they still sort of threw caution into the wind with this kidnapping. _Are they really just that reckless?_

As I stood idly, invested in by thoughts, the Espeon standing at eye-level in front of me looked up again, ears no longer reaching down his body. He gave a look of determination in his solid purple eyes.

"But I know everyone else is safe, and I know that I'll meet up with all of them again, even if I have to make it happen myself!" He said while his mouth began to form a smile. "There's no way that I can give up, that's what I took from you after you helped everyone at the old camp. I want to be able to help too, so I can't give up on them!" Shine proudly stated. For a few seconds, I just locked eyes with him, observing the gaze that he held, burning with purpose. I smiled at him.

"You know, you'd make a great Raven when you get a bit older." Shine had something that a lot of Ravens did, that look of determination, an unwillingness to give up. It was the perfect trait for a Raven, and I could definitely see Shine in that position one day.

"Who says I'm too young? I'm already the same size as you!" He taunted.

"Well, I'm not exactly the largest pokemon in the world. Becoming a Raven requires a lot more than the size of one's body."

"I know that, which is why I'm going to prepare myself to become a Raven until the day comes when I can apply!"

"I'll look forward to it." I swung my head in a rather awkward way in order to swing by scarf to the other side of by body, revealing the symbol of the Nest that was branded into my fur and skin. "I'll look forward to the day you share this symbol with me." Shine nodded rapidly before heading off to one of the doors in the room with all of the other children. All of the doors contained bedrooms for the orphans, and Shine said that he was going to mentally prepare himself to train his heart out.

"He's a determined one, isn't he?" Cyan commented from next to me. "Do you really believe that you can see him as a Raven, even from his age?" I took a few seconds to think about by response before actually replying.

"Of course I do. You can't find determination like that in just anyone, regardless of how young he is." I wished I had that kind of determination at that age, then it probably wouldn't have taken me nearly as long to actually break the mould I had formed for myself. Cyan and I walked back down the hall we came from and stood near the front desk with the bell I used to call him.

"That child certainly does have dreams to follow, I just wish he knew the full truth." Cyan said with a sigh and I tilted my head, wondering what exactly he was talking about. He noticed this and began to explain. "Truth be told, their grandfather is most likely not going to be able to find the rest of the group. The real reason he was in such a hurry to find a place for all of these kids to stay is because his clock has been ticking for a while now." Cyan let out a small sigh as he said this.

"You mean, he's close to being… Out of time?" Cyan nodded in response. I didn't really know how to react to this. On one hand, I really shouldn't have been surprised. From the small interaction I did have with him, it was clear that he was up there when it came to age. I didn't really know if it was the right decision to keep this from the kids, but I understood why he ended up going through with it. The request probably came from the grandfather himself, Cyan was just respecting his choice.

"I know that I'll have to tell them eventually, but they've been through a lot recently, so I don't want to push this kind of information on them so quickly. Their minds are already in a fragile state, no sense in pushing more negative thoughts into them." Cyan sighed once more as he finished his sentence. If these kids ended up being separated from each other, as well as their guardians, at least Cyan seemed to be a good pokemon to take care of them. The objective I had when coming here was to scout this place out and make sure that it was suitable to take in children that needed to be cared for. Through the small amount of talk I had with Cyan, I made a judgement about his character, and told myself that they would be no one better to run this place.

"I'm going to give a good report to the Nest, and I'll make sure this place gets as much support as possible." I told Cyan, and he gave me a surprised gaze. I just smiled in response. "I can easily tell that you care for all of the children here, and I want these kids to be safe, especially after all of the strenuous events that life has been throwing them lately. I can tell that they feel safe here, and I can tell that you'll do your job well." Cyan's surprised expression transformed into one of appreciation, and he gave me a smile.

"Thank you! I'll make sure that I don't waste what's given to me!" He exclaimed, clearly excited that he was going to be supported by something as large as the Nest.

After a few minutes of idle talk with Cyan, I mentioned that I had to go before it got too late, and after we bid each other a goodbye, I left the orphanage. As soon as I walked out of the door, I felt the moonlight enlighten me. I absorbed the light given off from the moon, making my mind enter a state of bliss. I felt energy begin to rise within by muscles, and I didn't even try to stop by rings from glowing brightly. I stretched out all of by joints, hearing each one pop as I extended them. After stretching for a bit, I looked around me, seeing only a few pokemon walking around the street. Because of this, I came up with an idea.

 _I haven't really had much real exercise today other than aimlessly walking around this town._ With that thought in mind, as well as a vague idea of the direction I needed to head in to find Naru's old home, I sprinted down the street and turned the corner, hoping that I would find my way to Naru's home without much issue.

* * *

Hello Readers!

So I have a bit of a short chapter for this update, as something in the near future may affect my ability to write as often as I usually do, so I wanted to get something out instead of pushing it and ending up without a chapter until I'm done doing what I need to do.

Anywho, I wanted to address something that has come up in a few reviews and PMs recently. I have been asked a few time whether I plan on writing a lemon or not somewhere in this story. To put it simply… I'm not sure. I've never written anything close to a lemon in the past, and I'm not sure just how confident I am in my ability to compose such a thing. I'm not opposed to it, if anything, I want to experiment with by ability to write various situations, but at the same time, I don't want to story to suffer at all form it. Assuming I do decide to add a lemon somewhere in this story, it won't be for quite a while, so if I don't follow up on this statement immediately, that doesn't mean I'm not going to write one, it means that I'm still thinking about it. By end goal is just to write something that all of you enjoy, so hopefully I can deliver!

Finally, thank all of you for your reviews, PMs, etc. I read and respond to all of them, so don't be shy! (Coming from one of the most bashful people on the planet.)

See You Next Chapter!


	18. Anxious thoughts

**Naru**

After searching through alleys, back roads, as well as a number of small, suspicious-looking abandoned buildings, I was pleased to realize that no Void hideouts whatsoever were evident in the town of Myriad. I got through the majority of the town a lot faster than I initially thought I would, as nothing really slowed me down. I did follow a few groups of pokemon that gave me a rather uncomfortable vibe, but none of them turned out to be anyone dangerous, just me overthinking what someone may have been doing. All I found through the rounds I made around the town was two or three more groups of pokemon 'enjoying themselves,' and pedestrians just going about their day, minding their own business.

While I was happy that the town I originally lived in wasn't swarming with criminals, it did make the rest of the day feel rather uneventful. When it came down to it, I really did just walk around the entire town, nothing more. Now that I was finally coming around to the spot in which I started, I took a look up at the night sky, observing the waxing gibbous moon trying its best to light up the black sky. I never really had a preference of night or day, but night was quickly becoming something I appreciated more as days passed. I was always more relaxed at night, and after a day spent training or moving all over the place to complete a task, I welcomed the calmness that came when the sun went away. I imagined that Kuro, being an Umbreon, felt the same way about night, but we've never really had a conversation about it. We talked about a lot of random things, but that's one that we never crossed for some reason. It felt odd that we'd skip over something like that after we've spent multiple hours talking about biology.

After a few more minutes of walking, I checked up on another alleyway that I ended up passing, one that I wasn't really familiar with. I thought I knew every aspect of this town, every little spot that could be used to avoid attention from the rest of the world, but I guess that I ended up forgetting one.

Regardless of me forgetting about it, or never knowing about it in the first place, it was yet another empty alley. Nothing of note was located within it, just a small area that the residents of the surrounding blue and green buildings dropped their trash. This created a somewhat unpleasant smell, but it wasn't anything unbearable, just a minor annoyance. I walked all the way down the alleyway, still finding nothing of note. I looked at the dead end I was presented with, nothing but a solid beige wall that connected to a house on that side. I let out a small yawn, the constant walking around finally eating away at by energy. I turned around and prepared to walk out of the alley, ready to finally go back to my old home and rest for the night. I was able to head back happily, knowing that I accomplished a lot of tedious surveying of the town in one night. There were still a few places I needed to check, but my body was telling me that it was time to go back.

Just as I was getting to the end of the alleyway, something I wasn't expecting happened. I was being approached by a large Linoone, coming from the streets I had just entered the alley from. They were twitching rather uncomfortably, and had a sickening smile on their face. The pokemon creeped me out so much that I immediately searched their body with my eyes to find any sign of the Void's symbol. Luckily, after scanning them a few times, I came to the conclusion that they were not a Void member, although, they did have a large black bag resting on their back, and I was a bit curious as to what was inside, but the part of me feeling discomfort in the face of this pokemon won over by curiosity. Why exactly was this Linoone blocking me from leaving?

I decided to test the waters a bit and took a step forward, then taking another step to the side as if I wanted to walk around them, which I most certainly did. Once I got closer to the exit however, the Linoone stepped in front of me again, blocking by way out. I thought of it as a fluke and tried walking around them the other way, but I was blocked off yet again. My slight fear was beginning to quickly morph into annoyance. I let out a small sigh and looked at the Linoone's crazed eyes. Their eyes were dilated, which most likely didn't mean good things.

"May I please walk past you?" I asked with a polite smile, trying my best to hide my annoyance. "I've had a very long day and need to get going." The Linoone just kept their disturbing expression and gave a small chuckle that admittedly creeped me even more.

"First, give me whatever's in that beautiful bag of yours, and also the scarf around your neck." He said in a shaky voice. I couldn't tell what exactly was wrong with him, but he didn't seem mentally stable. However, considering that his intent was to rob me, I could guess what was in the bag he had balanced on his back. It was most likely money and possessions of other pokemon that he has done the same thing to.

Honestly, while this guy creeped me out beyond belief, I wasn't really scared of him, just… Disturbed. Had this happened before I left for the Nest, I would be terrified. I would have coughed up whatever I had and then begged for them not to do anything to me. I hate to look back on how I used to act when I felt threatened, but it was the truth. I used to be a massive coward, not able to face anything that scared me in the slightest bit.

But that was then and this is now.

"Have you robbed anyone else today?" I asked him in a calm voice. He just changed his expression from that of a crazed lunatic to one of a very confused psychopath.

"What? Why does that matter?" He asked, almost sounding panicked. Maybe he was caught off-guard from my lack of fear. "You don't need to know about what I've done today, so just give me all that you have and then you can leave without issue." He started to talk faster, as if he was legitimately getting worried about the situation. I wasn't sure if he wasn't used to being questioned, or if he was on a clock, or whatever was going through his head.

Frankly, I didn't care.

I rose one of by paws and pressed it to the Linoone's forehead. He flinched at my touch, as if not being ready for it. "Will you do me a favor and tell me who exactly you stole from?" I asked him, lowering by voice. It no longer sounded calm, it sounded more threatening.

"W-Why would I tell you anything!?" He shouted, but I kept my paw set on his head. "If you don't give me everything you have, then I'll take it by force!" He may have threatened me, but he didn't do anything to remedy the situation. Because of his lack of action, I decided to do something.

My paw began to lightly glow, and I made by body temperature drop to half of what it was before. I focused on that feeling, and spread it towards my paw. I then released the feeling from by paw, and disabled the Linoone in front of me. Ice quickly spread over the entirety of his body, the only parts not being covered were his eyes and mouth, giving him the ability to breath, and the ability to see what exactly just happened to him. Even know his mouth wasn't frozen, he didn't make a sound, presumably out of shock of someone resisting his robbery. I'd imagine it didn't happen often, as he did look kind of threatening when considering his size, which was much larger than average. Regardless of how he looked though, he clearly didn't know how to handle the situation if he was resisted against. I walked to the side of his body and hooked one of my claws under the strap of the black bag he had resting on his back and tore the bag away from the ice, breaking some of it in the process, but not enough of it for the Linoone to be able to move.

Without waiting for a response from the Linoone, I walked out of the alley, and continued on the path I started on. I quickly slung the other bag around my neck, creating a bit of an uncomfortable weight for it to support, but it was manageable. I would have to find the owners of whatever he stole, but that had to wait until the next day. As of now, whoever he stole from is most likely in their home and asleep, so trying to find them would be harder than actually finding a Void hideout in this town. I hoped that I would at least find an easy way to figure out who had an unfortunate encounter with that Linoone earlier today, but even if I did, that would have to wait until tomorrow.

 _I hope I can finally go home and rest…_ I thought to myself with another yawn. I made my way through the twisting streets of Myriad, taking the shortest route possible to make it to my old house. _Hopefully Kuro is there already, if not, then I'll have to go back out and find him._ I'll admit, I didn't have the most confidence in Kuro's navigational abilities. He had a bit of trouble finding his way through the Nest, regardless of us being there for nearly two months at this point. I didn't totally blame him, considering the size of the Nest, but I didn't think Myriad was that much smaller, so it was unpredictable how easily Kuro would find his way around.

In order to confirm whether Kuro was successful in his navigation or not, I cut through the last alleyway I needed to in order to get to my old home. I arrived at a somewhat confined area with a stone path leading to a familiar wooden-crafted house, one that I haven't seen in awhile. In front of this old house, I saw a familiar Umbreon, sitting near the front door. He was sitting up straight with his eyes closed. At first, I thought he was just taking in the moonlight, something he liked to do, but upon closer inspection, it looked like he was falling asleep while sitting up. His figure was occasionally swaying to the side, looking like he was about to fall over, but every time he was about to fall lopsided onto the ground, he would straighten himself last second, back to sitting up straight. I found myself just watching him repeat this for a few minutes. It was kind of amusing to see him try his best to stay awake. After I realized how long I had been just kind of… Staring at Kuro, I decided I should actually approach.

I walked up to him until I was about a foot away, right in front of him. He still had his eyes closed and was occasionally swaying back and forth. I waved one of by forepaws in front of his face, not getting a reaction of any kind. I blew some cold air at him, and I saw his face twitch a bit, but other than that, he was still in the same sleepy state. I found his reaction just as amusing as I found his motions from earlier, so I did it a few more times, gaining the same twitch every time. I soon realized that I had been observing and messing with Kuro for the past ten minutes, so I decided it was time to actually wake him up. I wanted to whisper something in his ear in order to wake him, so I leaned my head forward to do so. However, as soon as I started, I accidentally placed a forepaw over his, and then came to the realization that I still didn't have full control over my body temperature. Kuro's paw was almost instantly wrapped in a thin layer of ice, to which his eyes shot open and he instinctively jumped back a few feet, before falling to the ground.

He rolled onto his side and stood up on all fours again, frantically looking around to see the source of what just cut his body temperature far below what it was supposed to be. Soon after that, his eyes met mine. I was standing a few feet away from him now, not really reacting to the situation I had just caused. He looked back and forth between me and his frozen paw a few times, before letting out a small sigh.

"Any reason in particular that by paw is frozen?" He said while raising his frozen paw in the air. I could hear the tiredness in his voice, making me feel a bit guilty over the mistake I just made.

"S-Sorry! I didn't mean to do that." I told him quickly. "I had to lower my body temperature a little while ago, and I kind of forgot about it, so I accidentally froze your paw." I said in an awkward tone. I almost sounded panicked when I said it, worried that Kuro would be mad that I just did that. Right after I finished talking, Kuro straightened his muscles and smashed his frozen paw on the stone ground below him, shattering the ice and sending small shards along the short grass that surrounded us.

"No need to sound so afraid." Kuro told me before placing his previously frozen paw on the ground. "That just kind of… Caught me off-guard is all. I didn't mean to sound angry." Kuro let out a small sigh. I felt a bit of relief as well, happy that Kuro wasn't angry. _Then again, have I ever seen Kuro get angry in the first place?_ "On another note, what exactly made you have to lower your body temperature enough to freeze me on contact?" He curiously asked.

"I'll explain when we go inside." I told him, before walking up to the door. I pushed the door open with by head, and entered the small structure. I immediately walked to the kitchen that I haven't seen in a decent bit of time and set down both my bag, and the bag I took away from the Linoone. The lack of weight on my neck felt refreshing, relaxing the muscles located within it. I watched as Kuro walked in behind me and followed me into the kitchen. Once he entered, he stared at the table in the middle of the room, looking as if he was lost in thought for a few seconds. I then watched him tilt his head downwards and close his eyes. At first, I thought he was falling asleep on his paws again, but he almost looked like he was focusing on something, or like he had something on his mind. I watched as he kept his eyes closed for a few seconds, almost standing completely still. After a minute or so passed, he opened his eyes and resumed his normal posture.

"Are you okay Kuro?" I felt a bit concerned. He always had a similar look when he was lost in thought about something that was bothering him, so I hoped he wasn't in the middle of overthinking something.

"I'm fine, I was just paying by respects." He said, not taking his eyes off of the table in front of him.

 _Right… He didn't know about my family the last time he was here…_ I thought to myself. Last time he was here was… The day I met him. That was quite a while ago, before he knew about what happened to me, and I knew what happened to him. I never really thought about that when I suggested that we both come back here after we were done with our tasks for the night. Subjects like that don't really get brought up too much when talking to Kuro, so I guess I just never thought about how he would act here with that knowledge now in his head. However, I was happy that the first thing he decided to do when he entered the house was pay his respects to those that were not with us anymore.

"I appreciate it." I told him with a smile, which he returned to me after. "While we're here, are you going to visit your old home as well? It's close to here isn't it?" I didn't know exactly where Kuro used to live, so I didn't know whether it was a reasonable distance away, or if it was too far out.

"I… Haven't really thought about it." He looked up for a second, but soon reverted to his original position. "Maybe when we go over the task where we have to search the area surrounding Myriad. It's not too far away, maybe a few miles out, nothing more than that. It… Would be nice to visit." He said, his smile dropping very slightly, but still evident on his face.

"If it's close enough, I think it's a good idea! Mind if I come with you?" I didn't want to intrude if Kuro wanted to visit by himself.

"Of course. That might make things easier." He responded, keeping his smile.

"Sounds good!" I felt energized. "So how did your tasks go today? Did you find the orphanage okay?" Kuro's ears slightly shifted right when I asked him.

"Well, some difficulties, but it all ended well." He further explained exactly what he found at the place. He explained that, at that orphanage, there were some familiar pokemon to us, namely the children that used to belong to the camp Kuro and I went to for our first mission. Well, less than half of them, the other portion's location is unknown. Other than that, he told me that the one who owns the place was more than qualified to look after the children there, and will be receiving support from the Nest in the future, which was a good turnout. Right before Kuro mentioned the orphanage, it looked like he was contemplating something in his mind, as if thinking about what he was going to say. Kuro always made a certain 'thinking' expression when he did this, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't aware of it, but I certainly was. Usually, I don't pry, as he could just be thinking about one of the many questions we have yet to answer since we broke out of our old lives. Plus, I know he wouldn't hold information back from me unless he had a good reason.

After Kuro was done telling me about how accomplishing his tasks went, he asked me about mine, to which I proceeded to explain everything that happened, which wasn't much. I left out me walking in on a few pokemon performing certain actions, but I didn't think that was necessary information for Kuro to have. I also had to explain the bag that was the same size as half of my body that I ended up bringing back with me.

"I didn't think that Myriad would have a robbery problem…" Kuro said with a small sigh.

"I don't think this has always been an issue, I don't remember anyone getting robbed at all when I used to traverse the town on a regular basis." I looked up at the wooden ceiling that belonged to by old house, searching my memories a little more. "Then again, my family wasn't too keen on letting me know about all the awful pokemon roaming the town, so for all I know, Myriad isn't as peaceful as it looks."

"Regardless, I'm glad you made it out okay. With all of the training we've sustained at the Nest, I guess we're above most common thugs in terms of combative ability." He let out a small chuckle. "We might be able to turn that bag into the building where we need to get the new Raven applications. I would think, of all places, that would have the most connections around the town." I nodded in response.

"Probably. So, tomorrow, so you want to go there in the morning and then head out to patrol the outskirts? That way we can get two more tasks done in a day and then go visit your old home!" I suggested. I still wasn't absolutely sure if Kuro really wanted to go back to where he used to live or not. Because of this, I didn't want to make it seem like I was forcing him to do it or anything, it was just a suggestion I was giving in case he wanted to.

"Sounds good to me." He smiled. "We should leave early then, it took me a while to walk here the first time, so a round trip will certainly take up a good portion of the day."

"Alright! It's settled!" I exclaimed, before letting out a large yawn. "I'm exhausted, so I'm going to go collapse on my bed." Kuro chuckled in response. "You can use the same room you used the first time you were here. See you tomorrow!" I began to walk to the room I hadn't set a paw into for a decent bit of time. I heard Kuro give his nightly farewells behind me and walked off, doing exactly what I said I was going to do. I collapsed on by bed and relaxed my body.

I felt a few emotions creep up on me, but they weren't prominent enough for me to really do anything in response. I thought I would feel a lot more sad looking at this place that I used to live, but I took it better than I expected. Not once did I feel the urge to tear up or anything, although I may have felt a bit sad at the sight of this old place, it wasn't anything I couldn't control. If anything, I was happy to see that home that I spent most of my life in again, despite the negative memories that came with it. I've always tried my best to be optimistic, so even when I had to think about what happened to my family or sleep in the same room that I slept in so many times while they were alive, I still felt happy. They would have wanted me to be happy, so I'll try my best to live up to that.

I took in another large yawn and felt the tug of sleep pulling me in. I properly curled up in my bed and relaxed myself before entering a deep slumber.

* * *

 **Grace**

You wouldn't think that walking around a random town you don't know at all would be so entertaining. I walked down the many streets of a town called… I forgot, but I've been messing with almost everyone that I walk by, and I'm having a blast doing it. I kept following a bunch of different pokemon around and tapping them repeatedly before taking a few steps back, waiting a few seconds, and tapping them again. I don't know why such a simple thing entertained me to no end, but it gave me something to do before I moved in to accomplish by mission here.

I stopped on the side of the road to think about why exactly I was traversing this town in the first place. I was supposed to hunt down and kill an… Umbreon I think… HIs name was… No idea. Whenever Luna gives me something to do, it tends to slip my mind not too long later. I usually get distracted by something, and that completely directs me away from whatever I was doing in the first place. I always end up remembering what I need to do after some time passes, but until then, I just want to mess around with the general public some more.

I observed all of the pokemon passing by me, until I located a Bastiodon, walking casually along while carrying some kind of wrapped object on their back. It looked expensive, which is exactly what I wanted. I slightly tensed my muscles, lining up a shot. Once I had the proper aim, I shot off a small leaf directly towards the object at a blinding speed. As soon as the leaf made contact with the wrapping, it took the object right off of the Bastiodon's back, to which it flew at the nearest building and shattered. Apparently, whatever it was, it had the construction of glass, made evident by the loud crack that echoed through the air once it made contact.

I saw the Bastiodon look around frantically with a very angry gaze, and it was extremely difficult to not burst out laughing. Before the crowding group of pokemon in the streets could investigate and find out I caused this, I decided to dip into an alleyway close by, and then jumped from one wall of it to the other until I landed on the rooftop of one of the buildings the alley connected to. Once I knew I was safely out of sight, I ended up bursting into laughter. I was beyond resisting it at this point, I just let my joy pour out until I found it hard to breath.

Once I let out all of my joyous laughter, I walked to the edge of the building I was standing on and looked down at the streets below. I saw nothing but a crowd of pokemon frantically searching the surrounding area, wanting to find whoever was responsible for the event that had just occurred. I felt another laughing fit start to build up inside of me, but I resisted it and walked towards the middle of the roof I was standing on. Although, halfway there, I noticed that I wasn't alone on the rooftop. A colleague of mine was also here with me, and apparently he had been observing by actions.

"I can't fathom how Luna still uses you for anything…" He stated with a sigh. I just smiled in response, not offended at all by his comment. To be perfectly honest, I didn't understand why Luna sent me to do anything either, but I had fun doing whatever I wanted, so I was okay with it.

"What do you mean?" I asked him in a flabbergasted voice. "I clearly work the most efficiently out of any other of the Void's admins, even you, Assasin." I cartoonishly looked offended by his comment, but he just sighed again.

"Sometimes I wonder if you really are the one right under me in terms of combat." He deadpanned. I smirked at him in response.

"Oh please. You know that I can handle myself better than most." I lost my fake tone. I may have been just a liiiitle bit crazy, but I knew how to fight if I needed to. "After all, I am number four in the Void, only behind you," I paused for a second. "Behind you… And…" The Assassin gave a sigh.

"Above me is Aven, and at the top of the spectrum is Luna." He held a monotone voice. I slammed by paw to the ground and smiled.

"That's right! I knew Luna was number one, but I couldn't put my paw on who number two was…" The assassin sighed yet again. "You know, you should stop doing that, it's rather rude."

"And you're the one talking to me about manners?" I stuck my tongue out at him exaggeratedly.

"I don't care if I'm not polite, I just need to do what I need to do and then leave, simple as that!"

"And what is it you're supposed to be doing?" He asked with skepticism.

"Ummm…" I took a long pause and searched by memories. Specifically the one where Luna told me why I was here in the first place. Soon after, my eyes lit up. "Right! I'm here to find and kill or capture an Umbreon named… Named…" I took another long pause. "You know what, he's an Umbreon, so I'm just going to call him Blacky." I bluntly stated.

"You don't even know the name of your target…" The Assassin's voice held a lot of conviction before he put one of his hands to his forehead.

"Hey, you don't know the name of yours!" I shouted in response.

"That's because I was assigned a large group, not an individual." He slightly raised his voice. "Even so, they're already dead anyway, so their names are irrelevant."

"Welp, you still didn't know, so I win!" I exclaimed happily, getting yet another sigh from the Assassin.

"Usually I wouldn't try to stop your antics, but Luna sees your target as a threat you know. Maybe you should have done your research on someone you may have trouble with."

"You really think whoever I'm hunting down can hold a candle to Luna? That's ridiculous. They'd already be dead if that were the case." I looked up at the moon. "I'm sure I'll find by target and finish him without issue. Hell, maybe I can even hold back enough to spare him so I can take him back to the Void for some good ol fashioned torture!" The thought made me grow a large smile as I started up at the moon.

"Whatever pleases you is of no concern of me." The Assassin turned around to leave. "Just keep in mind, Luna doesn't ask us to do this stuff for no reason, if you don't take it seriously and fail, there will most likely be repercussions." I was about to give the Assassin another witty reply, but he had already jumped to another building and was out of earshot.

I just turned back to the streets below and stared blankly before growing a devious smile.

 _Can't wait to find you prey. It's been awhile since I captured someone._

* * *

 **Kuro**

I woke up this morning with more energy than usual. It's been a little bit since I woke up feeling revitalized, and I wasn't sure why I did, but I wasn't about to complain about feeling energetic. _Maybe I absorbed more moonlight than usual…_

Naru and I had just finished receiving applications for new medical staff to be employed at the Nest. After looking through the applications for a few seconds, and after realizing I am nowhere near qualified to study anything medicine-related, we continued to walk through Myriad until we found our way to its outskirts. The outskirts of Myriad almost reminded me of the outside of the Nest, mostly consisting of endless plains of grass. The difference between the two laid in the many trees and bushes that were located around the town. I didn't know if I necessarily preferred one over the other, but the difference in environment was refreshing.

Searching for possible Void members or hideouts ended up being less tedious than I thought. There really weren't any places for pokemon to hide, so most of the search ended up morphing into looking at all of the different pokemon around and determining if they had a possibility of being a part of the Void. Luckily, through the many pokemon we observed, not a single one was determined to be a Void member. This was a rather pleasant surprise, as I didn't want to have to run into Void members and sufficiently ruin my mood.

The two of us were rounding back around to where we started, having made a full circle around the town. We didn't feel the need to stop any of the pokemon we observed, so our walk around the outskirts of the town ended up being rather peaceful. I welcomed the peace, and considering that we were on the verge of accomplishing two of our necessary tasks in one day, we were working at a good rate. Because of this, neither of us felt the need to rush anything, and we also had extra time to do other things while we were here that didn't involve one of our tasks, such as going to my old home. Whenever the thought of visiting that place again made its way into my head, I had a few uneasy feelings, but I just kept pushing them away. I would deal with whatever was flooding my head when we got there.

"It seems like any criminals around here limit themselves to the town." I turned my head to the voice of the Glaceon walking next to me.

"It seems that way, we haven't seen anyone who may be a criminal since we left." I looked at the path ahead of us, made up of small pebbles and surrounded by a surreal view of grass, as well as some small trees located not too far off from the edge of the collection of stones. I hoped that we weren't overlooking any areas outside of Myriad that we were walking by. I never really saw a Void hideout other than their main ship, so I wouldn't know what a hideout looked like of I did happen to stumble across one. I did notice our surrounding start to look familiar though, so it seemed like we made a full circle around Myriad.

"Wow, we got this done a lot faster than I thought." I said while looking around at the familiar trees.

"I guess we had a good pace!" Naru tilted her head. "But it's a bit strange that they sent us to do this in the first place."

"How so?"

"Well, considering we haven't found anything in Myriad or around it, I think it's safe to assume that they aren't any Void hideouts within a close vicinity to Myriad." She looked at all of the pokemon walking by us. "I mean, wouldn't the boss only tell us to search if she was suspicious of there being Void hideouts here? And if she is, then why not mention it to us?" I had to admit, that confused me a bit as well. I hadn't really thought about it much until Naru mentioned it though.

"I guess that is a little weird…" I looked up to the blue sky, seeing a few clouds begin to collect in the distance. "When you really think about it, this mission is a bit… Unconventional, seeing as we're doing a bunch of them while staying in this town. You'd think that one of us would have some knowledge of this happening in the past, but as far as I know, this is the first time such fresh Ravens were sent out like this. Perhaps there's some other reason we were sent here."

"But, what would that be?"

"You got me there." As much as I didn't feel the most comfortable with the information that Naru and I had just inferred, I decided to dismiss it as us overthinking the situation. I let out a small sigh. _I guess Myra did give us a decent explanation as to why we were sent here, but is that really all there is to it?"_

"Maybe we should just accept it for what it is for now." Naru broke me out of my thoughts. "I'm sure what our boss told us is-"

 _Hello? Can anyone hear me?_

Naru and I both jumped at a voice that played from inside of our heads. Both of our eyes darted around the area surrounding us quickly, getting a few uncomfortable stares from the pokemon around us. After a few seconds of panic, we both calmed down, realizing where the familiar voice we just heard came from. It was Core talking to us through our communicators.

Not wanting to think make Core think his device wasn't working, I focused my thoughts, and tried to respond.

 _Core? I can hear you, can you hear me?_ Asking someone a question mentally felt… Odd, but I waited for a response nonetheless.

"Wait, Kuro, how did I just hear you do that?" I looked at Naru, who gave me a questioning gaze.

"You heard me respond to Core?" I thought about it for a second longer. "Wait, you heard Core too?" Naru nodded her head.

"Not only did I hear him, but I heard your response as well. Maybe you accidentally responded to me instead of-"

 _Great! You can hear me! Now I have some information for you two._ Core's voice rang through our heads and made us jump again. I was nowhere used to being communicated to through my head, and I don't think I was going to be anytime soon. I assumed that Core somehow called out to us at the same time, and created a link of sorts between the three of us for our current conversation. I was about to further consider who exactly came up with this invention, but I decided to not hurt myself over the topic, just accept that its construction was beyond my comprehension.

 _What kind of information do you have for us?_ I heard Naru's voice ring through my head.

Core somehow mentally cleared his throat. _Well, today the Nest had a bit of an unexpected visitor. Because of said visitor, lives were put in danger, particularly the ones of Kage, Vero, and Shiro._ My eyes slightly widened at Core's transmitted thoughts, and I began to feel anxious.

 _What happened!? Are they okay!?_ Naru's voice played in my head next, sounding panicked.

 _Stay calm, everyone is fine, Kage ended up getting beat up quite a bit, but nothing is fatal or permanent. The other two didn't seem to sustain any injuries, and the pokemon who invaded the Nest seems to be gone without a trace, so as long as everyone stays careful, we'll be safe._ Naru and I gave a sigh of relief simultaneously.

 _Who infiltrated the Nest?_ I transmitted back.

 _According to Vero, it was a Gallade. For some reason, he wanted to take Shiro from the Nest, and since Kage happened to be with her at the time, he ended up getting caught in the crossfire. I'll have more details of the encounter once Kage is in a decent condition to talk._ The Nest being attacked by someone was intriguing enough, but the species that attacked the Nest rose an ever-so present question in my mind.

 _By any chance, did this Gallade have a scar over one of his eyes?_ It seemed like the thoughts you send through these devices correspond to your emotions, because you could hear the unease in the thoughts transmitted.

 _He did… How did you know? Do you have previous experience with this pokemon?_ Naru and I shared a quick glance, both of us having the same disturbed look in our eyes.

 _We've both had an experience with him before. The two of us had an encounter with him the day before we decided to apply for the Nest. He… Actually tried to kill me._ Naru transmitted with a worried voice.

 _I see. Well he has a way of getting around that ignores the Nest's defensive protocol, so he does pose a threat to us. If the Void has a way to get into the Nest, that can only mean trouble._ Core paused for a few seconds. _Anyway, I just wanted to inform you two of the events that took place earlier today, but rest assured, everyone is safe, and we're working on a way to keep away the possibility of him ever coming back, so try not to worry about it. See you two when you get back._ With that, it sounded like Core was done transmitting to us. I took a second to recollect exactly what I just listened to.

So someone wanted to take Shiro… But for what reason? Why would he need her? I know that she escaped him when she ran away from the Void, but what was he doing there in the first place? I was happy to hear that she, along with Kage and Vero were okay, but it still confused me beyond belief. _Just what I needed… More questions…_

At this point, I really shouldn't have expected anything other than more confusion, but I hoped for some kind of break. Sadly, it didn't look like the world was going to give me the break that I wanted so badly. In the future, I need to learn how to look at these things from a more general angle, and not focus on all of the things I don't know. If I keep on doing this, I'm going to have an overload of questions that will haunt me to by grave.

"I'm glad everyone's okay." I heard Naru say from beside me. "But seriously, what does that guy want? First trying to kill the two of us, now wanting to take Shiro…" I heard her voice grow more and more concerned with each word. I couldn't blame her, as I didn't have the most positive thoughts either.

"Best not to be too worried about it right now. We have other missions to take care of, and Shiro will be safe as long as she's in the Nest with everyone else." I tried to assure her, as well as assure myself. "I say we focus on taking care of everything we need to here before we go and worry about things we can't get answers to."

"You're right. Let's just do what we need to here, then we'll start on solving mysteries!" Naru put energy into her voice, replacing the uneasiness, which made me smile. "Now that we've rounded Myriad, why don't we go visit your old home?" I nodded in response and I began to lead us down the path that I originally came to Myriad down. We ended up pretty close to it right after our round of Myriad was over and done with, so it didn't take much time at all for me to get by bearings again and begin to walk down the long stone path.

As soon as we stepped onto the path, I recognized the area completely. It was a bit odd, considering I've only been down it once, but I suppose this was the first place I saw outside of my old home and the forest behind it, so it had a place in my memory. As for the path itself, none of its aesthetics changed since I traversed down it the first time, same stone path, same green grass, same small bushes. It made it easier for me to remember exactly where I was going, so I was content with the familiar scenery.

Every step we took, we were getting closer to my old home, the place I hadn't seen in nearly two months after living there for the first sixteen years of my life. It definitely felt… Odd. I never thought I would leave in the first place, so returning there after I did end up leaving felt strange to me. Besides this strangeness, I also felt kind of nervous. Although, I had no idea why I did, but the feeling was ever-so prevalent in by mind regardless. I tried to take my mind off of it by observing the groups of pokemon that occasionally passed us, but whether it was a Weavile calmly walking down the same path or a child Pidgey ravenously biting into an apple, I couldn't distract myself. So instead, I just kept walking in silence, trying my best to not acknowledge my thoughts. _I'll deal with it when I get there… I'm sure it's just me overthinking things._

* * *

Hello Readers!

Sorry for the somewhat-late update, I seem to have times where I can get a chapter done in three or four days, and then times where life decides that it wants me elsewhere, so by updates slow down. I swear, I had this thing sitting on six-thousand words for the past week, and I just never had extra time to sort out my ideas and finish it. But in the end, I got it done, so positive vibes!

Also, for some reason, my computer decides to now always autocorrect "My" to "By" without me doing anything. I have to say, it's really beginning to annoy me, and the amount of 'By's I've had to change in proofreading is kind of baffling. I want to apologize in advance if I miss any, but if you see that word somewhere and It doesn't look right, then now you know why.

Finally, I want to thank everyone for the positive/constructive reviews, PMs, etc. Special thanks to Rekad, Crystal Glaceon, and FaotheUmbreon, for a combination of encouragement and criticism that motivates me and improves by writing, as well as sticking with this story regardless of by less than perfect planning, I really appreciate it! (Also, Rekad is a fellow author, so check out their stuff!)

See You Next Chapter!


	19. Release

**?**

I barely had the strength to stand at this point, struggling beyond belief to get up. I wasn't sure how much time had passed since I lost consciousness, but I did know one thing, I'm meant to be dead. The incarnadine colors that filled my eyes were enough to convince me that I was meant to be a victim of this massacre. I looked down at myself, covered in crimson liquid, and not just my own. Surrounding me were somewhere between fifteen and twenty dead bodies. I guessed that the one that did this failed to realized that by wounds weren't deep enough for an instant death, so I still stood in this barn-like structure, waiting for my own life to come to an end.

At first, I was just going to let myself be consumed by the feelings of death that filled me, but after realizing that I wouldn't be serving my role in this situation if I just submitted to death, I found myself writing on the side of this wooden structure, with nothing other than the blood that dripped down by entire body. This building was now nothing more than a bloodbath, one that I should have been a part of.

I didn't even notice we were being spied on, but clearly we had been tracked. Despite more than a few of us being able to fight back, it wasn't enough. Our group was just a small one of five pokemon, nomads who travelled around and helped others in low-budget towns. Of course, Myriad wasn't really on our radar, but we came across a decently large group of pokemon travelling with no bearings of where they were. It seemed like they had been attacked by someone and now were at a loss of where to go next. Because the five of us knew the area, we decided to lead them to the closest town, being Myriad. We found this small shack-like structure here, and decided to take shelter while deciding what exactly to do with the group we had just found. We had no idea that taking shelter here for a few weeks would be what would kill us.

After weeks of providing to this group, mainly made up of children and a few adults, I felt a bad omen in my mind. I'm usually a fairly paranoid pokemon, so I dismissed by thoughts as more of that paranoia. Sadly, it turned out that my instincts struck a bulls-eye. Once we had been staying right outside of Myriad for a few weeks, we began to make plans to travel again, but our plans were interrupted. After coming back from retrieving food for everyone, I found a rather unseemly sight right outside of our shelter. I found one of our guards, one of the other nomads traveling with me, with deep gashes down his body. Not only that, but he had been decapitated, leaving the largest pool of blood I had ever seen. The initial shock hit me heavily, but I realized what it meant for our guard to be killed, so I immediately ran to our shelter, only to see an unfamiliar pokemon that I couldn't make out. Below that pokemon was a pile of maimed bodies, nearly unrecognizable.

I remembered freezing in by tacks completely, not knowing what to do. It didn't take a genius to realize who the bloodied bodies lying on the ground belonged to. I remember looking at the pokemon, by vision being blurred by building tears. I blinked them away and went to attack the assailant, but it looked like they vanished, and then appeared directly in front of me. I received a death glare, and felt something sharp pierce into by midsection. The object quickly retracted, leaving behind nothing but a sharp pain, increasing with every second. I doubled over and covered my midsection with my arms, and the last thing I remember before losing consciousness was the back of a dark hand colliding with by face.

I woke up an unknown amount of time later, surrounded by the smell of blood and rotting corpses. I nearly vomited right as I regained consciousness, but the searing pain in my midsection distracted me from doing so. I looked down at myself and saw a waterfall of blood pouring from the center of my body. After grunting in pain on the ground for what felt like hours, I came to terms with a realization. I was going to die.

Instead of conforming to my original thoughts of lying down and letting death consume me, I forced myself to get up and move to the side of our shelter, and began to spread a message on the wall using the blood flowing all over by body. Every time I moved a muscle, I felt my body scream at me, telling me to stop, before I caused myself any more pain. I ignored the pleas coming from the center of my being and continued to draw blood from myself and construct a message on the wall.

If anyone ever came across this scene, they needed to know who was responsible, and they needed to know what exactly happened here, and who exactly died. I had no doubt that the pokemon responsible was a Void member, a group that we tended to avoid in our travels, knowing about the danger that comes with them. I wouldn be surprised if they had some kind of hgh position at the Void, considering the strength that they held. The four nomads I was traveling with and I, we all had a lot of combat experience and have dealt with numerous life or death situations in the past. Even with this experience behind us, that pokemon didn't seem to be damaged at all. They moved swiftly enough for me to not be able to react in the slightest, and had they not miscalculated what it took to kill me, then I would have been dead on the floor in an instant. Never had I seen someone move like that, and I would never see it again.

I finished writing the message that I forced my body to conform to, and then let myself relax, trying to accept my death as peacefully as possible. I was taking in short, forced breaths, and I felt more and more blood flow out of by body. Now that I relaxed myself, the pain wasn't as bad, but it still felt like I was stabbed ten times in the stomach.

I started to close by eyes, knowing that I wouldn be waking up. However, as my eyelids were closing, I saw a small flash at the other side of the shelter, and saw something green and white slowly approach me. Before I could decipher anything else, I let myself fall into a final slumber.

* * *

 **Kuro**

After a little time passed walking to our destination, Naru and I were getting really close to reaching my old home. The same anxiety that I had been feeling during the entire trip here was still ever-so prevalent in my mind, despite my attempts to ignore it. I still had absolutely no idea as to what was causing this feeling to stir up inside of me. Even since by parents passed, I had been back and forth from that home, and had visited their grave more times than I could count, and I never had this strange nervous feeling about doing it in the past, so why was this happening now? Regardless of the reasoning, it has been bothering me ever since the idea of coming here was conjured up in the first place. ´Dealing with it when I get there´ is looking less and less viable the closer we get.

The way to by home was fairly straight-forward. There was a stone path that led from Myriad to another town a few miles away. In order to get from Myriad to where I used to live, you just need to follow that path until a certain point, and then walk off of it in one direction until you reach it. Now, instead of a path, we were walking through a field of grass, surrounded by a large amount of trees and other plants. I kept track of where we were going by using certain trees as landmarks, I put a claw mark in each of the trees that make up a path to my old home, and despite doing this when I initially left, the marks were still there. I think I had a general idea of where I was going even if the marks happened to be gone, but better safe than sorry.

After a few minutes of following marks on many different trees, I saw a familiar hill in the distance, leading to a cliffside. To the left of that cliffside, I saw what looked like a smaller hill with a large hole in the side of it, an entrance to said hill. That bump in the landscape was by old home.

As soon as my eyes found the familiar shelter, I was hit with a multitude of flashbacks regarding the exact image that was being processed to by head, looking at by home from the outside. Much to by surprise, the first memories that popped into my head weren't the negative ones, but old memories I had of just lounging around outside when the weather was nice. I used to love bright, sunny weather when I was an Eevee, but by evolution kind of turned me off of it. I still enjoyed being out in warm weather, but at times, it felt like the sun was burning into my skin if it was even mildly hot. I guess that being a pokemon of the moon has to make you feel discomfort at the sun.

I hadn't realized that I completely stopped walking as soon as I saw the place I previously lived in. I was too lost in by thoughts to register anything else in my mind. One past event played through by mind after another, from my mother teaching me basics of defending myself, to my father lecturing me about various subjects. All of my positive memories repeatedly stormed through my head, and I welcomed it.

"Kuro? Are you okay?" I shook my head in order to bring myself back to reality and properly respond to Naru.

"I'm fine, just having some flashbacks." I grew a small smile and closed my eyes for a few seconds. "It's hard to believe how long it's been since I actually lived here." I unfroze by body and began taking steps to towards the old den that I used to occupy. Once I made it to the entrance, I stood still for a few more seconds, observing the rounded hole in the side of a small hill. Looking at it again, I never really observed how unstable the entrance looked. I was surprised that it was still standing after all this time, but I was happy about it regardless.

Without stalling myself any more, I slowly walked into the den, taking in the sights I used to see every day as a child. As soon as I entered, the wooden table I used to eat off of is what my eyes observed. The wood still looked smooth, but also looked very worn down. It's to be expected, as this table hasn't received any type of maintenance in the past eight years, so time was taking its tole on the wooden piece of furniture. I walked up to it and set one of my forepaws on it. I slowly dragged my paw across the table, feeling the still-smooth texture that the wood had, but also took notice of the dampness and wear. I took by paw off of the table and began to walk to one of the two other rooms in the whole den.

I found myself in my old room, with nothing different whatsoever since the last time I was here. The room was still just as small, with nothing of note other than the small straw bed in the corner. I took a quick glance at the dirt walls, still as plain as they always have been. I never minded the plain appearance of this room, appearances in general really didn't matter to me in the slightest, as long as the room was stable, that's all I cared about. However, while looking around again, I didn't see the room as very stable. Regardless, it was still the same room I spent so much time in since I was a child.

I walked up to the bed in the corner and placed a paw on it. My paw instantly sank into the straws as most of them broke into pieces. I lifted my paw away from the bed and stared at it. Clearly time hasn't been as kind to this bed as it had been to the table in the main room. I looked up at the top of the room, also made up of dirt, and then closed by eyes.

I remembered how I used to always wake up with a ton of energy, and would sometimes get a bit over-zealous and fall off my bed as soon as I woke up, promptly landing flat on my face. I felt my lips curve into a smile, remembering how my mother would always say that I would get a concussion if I wasn't careful in the morning. I never really took her advice to heart, instead, I continued to fall down right as I got up, writhe in pain on the floor for a few seconds, and then promptly rise to by paws again to start my day. I was filled with such optimism back then, and the reason for that was the way I was raised. My parents' positive attitudes back then kind of reminded me of how Naru always tries to be as positive as possible, no matter the situation at hand. _Maybe I can re-create that optimism I used to have…_

After a few more minutes of standing in my old room, I finally decided to turn my body around and check out the last room in the den, which belonged to my parents. They never wanted me to go into their room without letting them know first, and now I know the reason why. The two of them were Ravens, and for one reason or another, they clearly didn't want me to find out. I took in a few small breaths, and then entered the room.

Their room was very similar to mine, if a bit larger due to them having more possessions than a single bed. Located inside the dirt rooms was a bed a bit larger than mine, as well as a small wooden crate in the corner of the room. That was it. I walked to the crate and placed a forepaw on the top of it, feeling the rough texture that didn't match the wood that our table was made out of at all. This wood wasn't made to be comfortable, it was made to hold items, and it did its job.

My parents always told me to never open this crate, as it apparently contained items they didn't want me to see. Or at least, didn't want me to see back then. I automatically assumed that it, once again, had something to do with them being Ravens. With this theory in mind, I hooked one of by claws under the top of the crate, and threw open the top of it.

Inside of the wooden storage container held a few colorful items that I immediately recognized. I reached a forepaw into the crate and lifted out two items that were wrapped around my paw. One of the items that I pulled out was a small necklace, made of a small rope-like string with a green gem in the middle. It was a gift that by mother gave to my father not too long after they met, according to them. The gem matched the leaf-like skin that he had, so by mother thought it was a great gift. He almost never took it off, but I was thankful that the one time he didn't have it on was his time of death. If he did, then the gem most likely would have shattered, and the best gift that by father ever received would be gone.

The second item that I pulled out was a scarf, similar to the one that I had wrapped around my neck, but instead of a light teal, the scarf was a dark blue, which created a nice color contrast on my mother's skin. This was a gift form by father to my mother, but it was given quite a bit later than the necklace was. Regardless, it had the same sentimental value to her that the necklace had to by father. These were the two biggest gifts that my parents gave to each other, and they both held them dearly.

After staring at the two accessories for a little while, I set them both back down inside of the crate I retrieved them from. The rest of the crate's contents seemed significant of the findings that my parents made while they were working as Ravens. I found a few unique-looking stones, and some old papers that had rather cryptic messages on them. My father always loved to look at history and legendary lore, and he loved to try his best to pass that knowledge down to me, despite me not really holding any interest in it. I guessed that these papers were part of what he loved about looking into history, and I could definitely understand how he was intrigued by everything he found out.

I observed a few more random items that were located in the crate, none of them holding the amount of significance that the first two items had, but all of them being interesting nonetheless. I liked finding all of these things that my parents owned, it gave me a good idea of what they liked beyond what little I knew as an eight-year old Eevee. I finally decided to exit the room, realizing that I had probably spent way longer there than I initially intended.

Right when I exited into the main room, I saw Naru sitting beside the table, looking around at the dirt walls that surrounded the den. I wondered how long she had been sitting there, she must have not wanted to distract me from looking through the den again, so she kept to herself. Once she noticed I was standing in the opening, she looked at me and smiled, but didn't say anything.

"I… Just want to go pay my respects to by parents, then I'll be ready to leave whenever you are." I told her. I Honestly could stay here for hours thinking about all of the things I used to do as an Eevee cub, but I didn't think that was the best idea.

"Oh! Do you mind if I come with you? I kind of want to repay the favor since you did the same with my parents. You can go alone if you want to, just asking." I smiled at the Glaceon, happy that she was being as considerate as she was. I knew she couldn't be the most comfortable right now, sitting in my old home while I observed it and thought about the past, so her just trying to support me meant a lot.

"I don't mind." I began to walk towards the entrance to the den. Naru just nodded in response and then followed me. Once we exited the den, I took notice of the sun beginning to set. I really had been just thinking about the past for a lot longer than I thought I had, it had been hours, but felt like minutes.

We walked to the foot of the hill that led up to where my parents' grave was located. I began to trek up the hill with Naru right behind me, and I felt that anxious feeling come back to me with a vengeance. It left for a little bit while I was checking out by old den, but now it was back, and much worse than before. I was surprised my body didn't have some kind of physical reaction to the feeling, but I just dealt with the feeling and walked up the hill until we reached the cliff.

I scanned the ground until I found what signaled the grave of by parents. Three flowers that were being fed by the sunlight and rain for years now. One blue flower, one green flower, and one brown flower. The three flowers had grown over the years since I planted them the day that my parents passed, but they were still more than recognizable as the same flowers that I had planted that day.

I walked as close to them as I could without stepping on them and then sat down. Right after that, Naru sat next to me, and we both turned our heads down to the ground and closed our eyes. Once again, I let my mind wander to all of the positive memories I had with by parents, and I relished in those memories. I did the same thing that I always did while visiting this grave in the past, just looked down and prayed, thought about everything my parents did, all of the fun times I had with them, and whatever they taught me. The same memories that were running through my head while observing the den replayed, along with a few others.

I remembered when my father used to tell me how dangerous the forest located directly behind our home was, and how he always told me to never do in there without someone to accompany me, and I remembered how I stayed terrified of the place until I went and explored it myself. I thought everything would be okay, so one day, I decided to try and traverse through the forest on my own, purely out of curiosity. I walked around it for a few hours, really enjoying all of the scenery and took note of everywhere I traveled, wanting to come back another time. Right as I was ready to head back to the den, I remember my father coming out of nowhere and picking me up by the nape of my neck before dragging me back. I then got scolded for going off on my own after the two of them explained how scared they were that something happened to me. Despite being upset at the time, I just smiled at the memory. My parents were just worried about me, so I really had the lecture coming.

I looked back on a time where I was being taught some ancient myths from my father, and I fell asleep in the middle of it. Once I woke up, he seemed overly distraught that I wasn't as interested in historical practices as he was, but then my mother came in and explained how uninteresting it was for a young child to hear about all of that. She then went on to explain how she was never interested in lore either, and that she much preferred staying with current times. This made my father go into a minor depression for the day, but after that day had passed, he was back to his normal, cheery mood. The two of them were always so lively, never creating a dull moment in my childhood. _If only we didn't need to be attacked… Why did that need to happen? Why couldn't everything have turned out better?_

I felt myself getting emotional, so I tried to cut off by thoughts. That didn't help though, I still felt negative emotions build up inside me, almost like a dam that was about to flood. I was confused by by feelings, I've done this exact thing so many times in the past, I've sat in this exact spot and replayed these exact memories time and time again. _Why… Am I getting so worked up?_

My breathing began to become audible, which I didn't immediately notice. I felt tears begin to build up under my eyelids, but I resisted. If I've done this so many time before, the emotions I'm feeling shouldn't be this strong, they never had been since the day everything occurred in the first place, so why? Why now?

My body began to slightly tremble, and it was beginning to get harder and harder to calm myself down. I felt the emotions in my body begin to overtake me more and more, my breathing became quicker and louder, and I started to shake even more. I still had my eyes glued shut though, not daring to open them until I had myself under control. I nearly forgot that I wasn't here alone, but I she reminded me of her presence.

"Kuro, are you okay?" She held a gentle tone, one that sounded comforting. She completely understood everything I was feeling, a very similar even happened in her life, and she dealt with the same emotions that I was feeling right now so many times in the past.

"I-I…" I tried to respond to her, wanting more than anything else to just say that I'm okay, that I wasn't having any problems with my emotions, that everything was normal, but I couldn't. As much as I attempted to talk, I ended up not letting anything out more than a whimper. I felt an unbelievable lump in my throat, completely disabling me from any form of speech. This had never happened to me before, to be such a slave to my current emotions that I couldn't even talk, or make a comprehensible sound. I was about to take one final push to bring by emotions down, one final attempt at calming myself completely, I was getting to the point where my rings were glowing, although faintly. By rings had never broken through by ability to control them since I learned how to do it in the first place, and now they're glow just kept increasing. Right as I was going to put by final push into action, I felt something make contact with by head.

I felt my head move without me trying, and then it was rested against something soft. I then felt something else rest on by head, taking up the space in between my two ears. I felt something else rest on by back, and begin to softly drag up and down it. I opened my eyes a small amount, my vision blurred by the few tears that made their way to the surface. It didn't take me too long to realize what kind of position I was in right now. Naru had pushed my head down towards her chest, and had her head resting on top of mine. She had one of her paws on my back, and was slowly bringing it up and down.

"Remember what I told you a little while after we met?" I listened intently to the sound of her voice. "Holding in your emotions is bad for you, when they eventually get released, it's going to be a lot worse. You even threw those words right back at me rather recently." She gave a small chuckle. "But, I want you to stop pushing down your emotions. It's clearly affecting you in a bad way, and it's only going to continue if you keep holding back. I know you do it at times because you need to be strong in front of others, as a Raven, but there are plenty of times where you don't need to do that." She took a deep breath. "This is one of those times, you don't need to act like you're not feeling upset, you have nothing to hold you back, so stop resisting your feelings."

I took every word that was just said to me straight to heart. I had a hard time determining how much I held back by emotions, and an even harder time knowing when I couldn't take any more. I had been building up concealed stress and emotions for a long time now, never really having any form of release. My emotions probably began to spike up as much as they did because of the amount of buildup that has accumulated over time. I felt like such an idiot. I knew that holding in your emotions wasn't good, and knew it was bothering me, but I never acknowledged it, not once. I kept on pretending that I could deal keep on dealing with whatever was thrown at me without a break, despite knowing the truth under the surface. Naru was right with everything she said, I tried to act a lot stronger than I am, just because I didn't want others to worry. I acted strong in front of pokemon I didn't know because, as a Raven, I wanted them to be content with the possibility of me needing to protect them. I acted strong in front of pokemon I was familiar with because I never wanted them to worry. I took on way too much, and never released any pent up emotions. This had to be pointed out to me by my partner, who was still consoling me the same way. I felt… Comfortable. It wasn't easy to explain, but whenever I was around anyone, I felt like I couldn't mess anything up, or I had to always act with a lack of negative emotions. I acted like I wasn't a pokemon, just like them, I had negative emotions too, and I had been holding them back for way too long. Naru made me finally accept this.

So I took Naru's advice, and let out what I had been holding back. I wept, sobbed, and cried my eyes out, not holding anything back like I had been previously. It was strange, I thought that I would have a problem with someone else seeing me like this considering nobody on the planet other than my parents had in the past, but I didn't care. I had to listen to Naru, I had to get all of by pent-up emotions released, or it would just keep eating away at me. Plus, while she was holding me the way she was, I still had a strange sense of comfort, despite the fact that I was staining her with my tears. It was similar to the way I've felt around her in the past, a feeling that I was unfamiliar with, but didn't dislike. I didn't spend too much time thinking about it, I was more focused on getting out any amount of sadness I still had inside of me. So, over the next hour, I did nothing but release that sadness.

Once that hour had passed, neither me, nor Naru had moven in inch. We were both in the same position that we were when she gave me a pep talk, and the same position in which I released my emotions. Although it brought me comfort, I knew that we couldn't stay like this forever, so I, a bit reluctantly, pulled away from Naru and took a few steps back, careful to not accidentally step on the flowers above my parents' grave. I took a second to wipe away the tears that were so evident under my eyes, and Naru wiped her torso a little bit, for the same reason. My eyes felt sore from crying, but I didn't care, the emotional release was well worth it. I took a deep breath, and looked at Naru with more red than usual eyes. I smiled appreciatively, and she returned it. I blushed slightly, thinking about what exactly I just did, which was release everything from my mind.

"T-Thank you," was all I could manage to get out. I appreciated what she had done for me far more than any words I can think of would be able to express.

"No problem." She responded with a smile.

The two of us then agreed that we should go back to Myriad before it becomes pitch black outside, so we did just that, without the anxiety I came here with.

* * *

 **Luna**

I walked into the Void's main lab, eager to look at my test subject. I had high hopes for the turnout of the latest experiment, hopefully it had been perfected enough to serve the purpose I wanted. I was pushing it a lot when it came to what is possible and what isn't, but I had confidence. Essentially, I had one of our members retrieve a pokemon from one of our more recent missions. The admin assigned to this mission seemed to miss out on killing one of the pokemon he was meant to, but I was perfectly fine with this, after all, it created the opportunity to play around a bit. The body this pokemon had was so close to death that they might as well have already been gone, but we were able to salvage what was left and save their life, which shouldn't have been possible.

Genetically engineering pokemon is quite the interesting activity, especially when it can greately increase the strength of said pokemon in the process. Our plans for the most recently captured pokemon was to create a bio-weapon of sorts. The Mawile we captured went through a process we recently developed, one that should save their life, despite them being more than past their life's limit. No only will it save them, but it will also greately increase their competitive abilities. If he was able to mega-evolve, that would make the increase even more effective, but sadly, it looked like he hadn't reached that level yet, but we were still making use of what was given to us.

I arrived at the lab in question, a large open space with plenty of tables with a variety of tools and drugs we use for testing. The room was made out of a similar material to the rest of the Void, being a sturdy metal, sharing the black coloring that our cells have. The walls were near-invincible, which was needed when taking testing chemicals and experimenting on pokemon into question. In the center of the lab, there was a pokemon chained to a pillar. It was the Mawile in question, who had woken up from what they thought would be an eternal slumber. Judging by the look he gave me, and the erratic movements he was making, I believed that he was well-aware of his situation, which drew a smirk out of me.

The Mawile looked like any normal Mawile, except for a few… Minor discrepancies. Instead of its pale yellow body and black arms and feet, its body matched that of the large black jaw on the back of its head, along with a bright red circle on the center of its body. Its jaw may have kept its color, but the yellow circle that would usually be on the jaw was completely absent. Also, his eyes lacked their normal red color, and were replaced by a bright blue. To me, this was a masterpiece.

I walked closer to him, to which he thrashed around more and more, worried about what my plans for him were. Instead of hurting him, I just released his chains with a small dark beam shot from the golden ring on my forehead. As soon as he was free, he instantly took a battle stance and got ready to attack me, to which I just sighed.

"Come on now, I just saved your life, no need to be so hostile." He just scoffed in response.

"Saved my life? Give me a break! I know exactly who you are, and there's no way you just 'saved me' like that!" He shouted at me, increasing in volume as he spoke. "What… What the hell did you do to me!?" _So he observed his body already._ I smirked at him.

"Like I said, I saved your life, and also made you a lot stronger than you were previously."

"That's not true! Your group mindlessly killed a group of innocent children and nomads, there's no way you just saved me out of the kindness of your heart!" His stance tightened, looking as if he was about to attempt to strike me.

"Well you got me there." I chuckled. "Of course, you're working under me now, you should already know that."

"I'll never help you! I won't help anyone here!" With that, he shot at me, looking as if he was going to swing his jaw at me. I just sighed and closed by eyes. My body emanated a small glow, and a black, translucent dome formed around me. The Mawile slammed his jaw into the dome, but nothing happened. Once he took a few steps back, he looked shocked, but kept his assault going anyway. He continuously slammed his metal jaw into the dome over and over, but he was just hurting himself in the process.

"Honestly, even with a power-up, you do realize that you'll never stand a chance against me, right?" I held an unimpressed tone.

"I… I don't care!" He kept on slamming into the dome with all his might, trying to break through. After this continued for a few more minutes, I let the dome get released, and dodged under a swing from his jaw. He then tried to bite down on me from his position, but I stood on my hind legs and caught his jaw with my two forepaws, stopping it completely. I heard uneven breathing coming from the Mawile, he seemed to have tired himself out from his attempted assault.

"Looks like I need to show you your place." I said in a threatening voice. I pushed the Mawile away, and he stumbled a bit. I rose one of by forepaws off of the ground and extended a long black blade out of it. I harshly slashed it across his back, sending him to the other side of the lab. He shouted out in pain as blood rushed from his back. I rose my blade in the air, and swung it down. A large amount of very small black arrows appeared around me and flew towards the Mawile. Each individual arrow pierced their flesh, including the parts made of metal. I ignored the heavy breathing and shrieks of pain coming from the Mawile, and I pointed by blade at him. Just as I did, all of the small arrows exploded at once, shattering most of the glass in the lab and causing the Void's airship to quake. I pained and hoarse scream came from the Mawile, who then fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood. I would have killed him with that attacked, but thanks to our enhancements, he's wake up in due time.

I walked over to his body and looked down condescendingly.

"You better obey. I have a job for you."

* * *

Hello Readers!

How is everyone doing? I hope you are all well! This chapter actually took a lot out of me to write, namely because it was done in two sittings, as I know that I only had these times to work, so I wanted to get it done. So here I am, posting a chapter at one in the morning when I have to wake up at five! Ha… Ha…

I also added names for all of the chapters I've posted so far, no matter how cringy they are, I thought it would add to the story, hope you enjoy them!

Finally, thank all of you for the kind PMs, criticism, questions, reviews, etc. It helps me out a lot, so keep them coming!

See You Next Chapter!


	20. Standing up to number four

**Naru**

The trek back to Myriad was moving along smoothly, Kuro and I had merged back onto the path that we walked on right after leaving, meaning we were only a mile or two away. It was dark out, but not to the point of really obscuring our vision. There were definitely less pokemon treading the path since we came here, which was to be expected due to the time of night. Despite it being as late as it was, I wasn't really tired at all. I usually would be around this time, but the events that took place today sort of took my mind off of sleep.

I was really happy that I was able to support Kuro through him visiting where he used to live, and I would willingly do it again anytime I needed to. I will admit, I felt a tad bit uncomfortable while I was waiting for him to scope out the entirety of his old den, but that feeling dissipated when I saw the way he was feeling. Seeing him like that brought out a few actions that I'm glad I took, despite being worried about performing them in the first place. I didn't want to seem too imposing on Kuro, especially when he was on the verge of releasing a buildup of emotions, but I ended up going through with it anyway, and it seemed like that was the right choice. As much as I felt bad for Kuro at that moment, I was glad he stopped holding back, otherwise who knows what he would have done over time? I think Kuro's demeanor was proof that I made the right decision. Even before we arrived at his den, he expressed a lot of anxious movements, and I could tell that he wasn't too keen on where we were headed. But now, he seemed back to normal, back to the way he always acted before this trip. The only thing that stayed remnant of his negative emotions was the small amount of swelling still visible in his eyes, though you could only see it if you were looking out for it.

I took a short glance at Kuro, who was walking beside me, holding a somewhat stoic expression on his face. He would occasionally close his eyes to take in the moonlight while he could, something I really wondered the feeling of. I mean, I love rolling around in snow as much as any other ice type, but the moon wasn't really something that dark types all loved, it was more of an umbreon thing. _He looks like he really enjoys moonlight, I wonder why he doesn't spend more time outside at night?_

After a little while longer of walking, a large town came into our view. I spotted a few buildings of various colors and a large stone road, signaling the town that I was so familiar with. I'm fairly certain that the rest of our tasks to complete here would go off without a hitch, as most of what we needed to do revolved around asking random pokemon around the town various questions. We just needed to conduct a survey of sorts, gathering information. We also needed to investigate some kind of building not too far away from us, but we didn't know the exact location, so we hadn't really prioritized it. However, assuming we keep working at our normal pace, we should be done with all of our tasks by tomorrow, and then the rest of our time at Myriad could be spent however we pleased. There wasn't anything in particular that either of us wanted to do, but it would be a bit of time off, which was always nice.

"What do you think that weird building we have to investigate will contain?" I asked the umbreon walking next to me, curious to hear his thoughts. He seemed to think for a few seconds before responding.

"I'm not too sure. According to our boss, there were a few Ravens sent there a little while ago, but they never ended up coming back. I think she just wants us to see if they're actually over there or not." Kuro glanced up to the night sky. "Hopefully whoever ended up being sent there is okay."

"I hope so too." I didn't know why there were Ravens sent there in the first place, or if anyone even lived there. For all we knew it could just be someplace used for storage. But if that was the case, what happened to the Ravens that were supposed to come back? _For some reason, I've got a bad feeling about it…_

"I don't think it's any use worrying about it now." I turned my head to look at Kuro. "If anything urgent happened, then we would have been told to go there before doing anything else here. For now, let's just focus on what we planned to get done." _He read me like a book…_

"Okay! Sounds good to me!" Kuro smiled at me as we entered Myriad. We began to walk on a few empty roads that led to my old home. Myriad was always a ghost town at night, with the exception of pokemon like Kuro and I, who had specific tasks to do during night time. Even though they existed, they were far from plentiful. This wasn't a bad thing, just an observation I made over the time I've spent here. I almost never ran into anyone here at night, and today would most likely be the same way. Well, if today was a normal day that is.

After turning a few more corners, following the same roads we took when we left to check out the outskirts, I saw a group of pokemon walking around close to us. Sadly, I recognized them. The front of the group had a hitmonchan walking cockily like he owned the city. I would never forget his face, and there was no doubt that the four pokemon behind him were also familiar to me. I felt a shiver go up my spine, remembering everything they said and did to me back when I actually lived here. For a second, I felt the same fear I had back then creep into my mind. I had to remind myself that I was different now. It looked like he caught sight of me, and gave me an evil smirk, recognizing me immediately. Usually, this was the point where he would approach me, try to tease me, or try to hurt me without the possibility of escape. For some reason though, he didn't come close, and his expression changed from intimidating to intimidated really quickly. _He looks… scared?_

Never in my life did I think I would see this pokemon look fearful. I always saw him trying to scare others, never showing any fear of his own. I was beyond confused, and glanced at Kuro to gauge his thoughts on the pokemon in front of us. I wasn't expecting him to be giving the group a death glare. He had malice in his eyes, and the last time I saw Kuro glare at someone like that was when he saved me from that gallade on the day we met. _How does he know them?_

Regardless of the look on his face, the hitmonchan continued walking forward, before changing his path towards the two of us. His group stayed behind while he kept walking towards us, and I admittedly felt a little bit shaken. Kuro dropped his glare to look at me concernedly, almost as if he knew I would have a negative reaction to this group, even though I never mentioned the species of pokemon who used to single me out. I talked about what they did, but never mentioned anything that would lead to their identity, so why did Kuro look at them so distastefully?

"Naru, are you going to be alright interacting with him?" _He's concerned about me..? But that means…_

"How do you know about them?" I asked him, genuinely curious how he figured it out. If I never said anything to him, then what clued him in on it?

"Kind of a long story, I'll explain later. But, will you be okay?" I nodded my head in response.

"That was then and this is now." Kuro smiled at me.

"That's what I wanted to hear." He turned his back to the hitmonchan, still glaring, but not quite as hostile as he did initially. He just walked up to us until he was standing a few feet away. He shot me a nasty look, and then looked at Kuro, and his expression changed again, looking as if he was scared out of his mind, even more so than before. _Is he… afraid of Kuro?_

"Can we help you?" Kuro asked calmly. The hitmonchan just let out a growl, clearly not pleased with either of us. He stared Kuro down for a few long seconds, gritting his teeth in anger. Now there were two things that clearly didn't happen often, this hitmonchan was afraid, and of Kuro no less, and, well, someone was afraid of Kuro in the first place. As much as I liked Kuro, I had to admit that he couldn't seem intimidating very easily. He was too gentle of a pokemon to put on a threatening face, so seeing someone else act afraid of him was rare. After what felt like hours of meaningless eye contact, the hitmonchan quickly drew his fist back, which began to glow brightly, and th swung it forward immediately, connecting directly with Kuro's face.

I was about to worriedly shout, but before I could process what was happening, I focused on Kuro. He hadn't moved an inch, and he just kept staring at the hitmonchan, putting on what looked like a bored glare, and then sighed.

"We've already been over this." Kuro hardened his stare a bit. "Do you need to me give you another example?" The hitmonchan grunted and pulled his arm back.

"I-I refuse to believe that I can't hurt you!" He shouted loudly right in front of us. _Did he just stutter? That's new._

"How about, instead of being in denial, you try to improve yourself? Maybe after some actual discipline, you can make me move." Kuro taunted, another rare occurrence. _Actually, have I ever seen him act like this? He doesn't even show this distaste to Kai…_

"Come on! Try to hit me! The result won't repeat itself!" _Repeat itself..?_ I didn't really know what the hitmonchan meant by that.

"I… Don't think that's a good idea." Kuro responded, almost concerningly.

"Just do it! I'll show you how weak you are!"

"Sorry, but I don't want a lawsuit for breaking your ribcage."

"I swear, I'll end you!"

"We've already been over this…"

I stood to the side, watching the hitmonchan and Kuro went back and forth. I most certainly wasn't expecting something like this to come out of our return trip, and it was…interesting. And amusing to me. Watching someone who tortured me when I was younger just get… taunted amused me. He seemed so threatening to me before, but now he just looked as tame as can be. He punched Kuro at full force and he didn't budge, and I can assume that something similar happened in the recent past if Kuro already knew about this group. Seeing them made out to be total fools just helped to further eliminate any remaining fear I may have had lingering in my mind. I looked away from my former bully to the one taunting him and smiled. _I guess we helped each other out today._

"Why don't you just shut up and battle me!?" Kuro sighed in response to the screaming of the hitmonchan in front of him, but didn't say anything back this time. He even took a step back, like he took the challenge seriously. The hitmonchan also stepped back, putting his hands up to signal a fighting stance. _Make sure not to break him Kuro…_

"Ooooooh! A fight is breaking out? I love these street battles!" I heard an unfamiliar voice shout from a decent distance away. Kuro's head snapped in the direction of the voice and I followed his motion a second later. A lot farther down the road stood a leafeon, smiling largely at Kuro and I. "I have my money on Blacky, that hitmonchan doesn't seem up to the task." She chuckled. _Blacky..?_

I turned my eyes to Kuro in order to gauge his reaction and he had the most dumbfounded stare covering his features. I couldn't tell if it was because of the strange nickname, or from the pokemon in general. Regardless, his attention was completely drawn to her, ignoring the hitmonchan fuming behind him.

"Hey! Don't ignore me! I was about to prove your weakness!" He shouted out, echoing down the road, certain to wake some sleeping pokemon. Kuro rolled his eyes in response, which didn't help the hitmonchan's mood. I could see why Kuro was distracted with this leafeon though, as she gave off an ominous aura, like she was here to do something, and it wasn't pleasant. I didn't know what it was exactly, but the dreadful feeling I obtained from this girl wasn't natural.

While Kuro and I were busy observing the strange leafeon that had just called out to us, the hitmonchan was absolutely furious. I take it that he didn't like being ignored much, even if it just saved him a lot of pain. Since he was tired of it, he ended up walking up directly behind Kuro and drawing both of his hands back and wrapping them together. He then attempted to bring them down on Kuro, but, without looking back, Kuro leaned to the side and dodged the slam, before taking his hind legs and kicking the hitmonchan in the stomach. The hitmonchan flew back a few feet, and then gripped where Kuro had just kicked him, looking as if he was in a lot of pain. He coughed harshly a few times before shakily standing back up on his two feet. _So much for saving him pain…_

Kuro was still observing the leafeon curiously, most likely getting the same vibe as me. _She might be dangerous._ The leafeon started to walk towards us and talk.

"HA! I knew it! That guy seems rather weak, and Blacky over here seems competent, I knew exactly how all of this would turn out!" I couldn't place my paw on what exactly felt so wrong about this pokemon, but there was definitely something. "Now, tell me. How long have you been a Raven?" _Why is she asking that..?_

"First, do you mind telling me who exactly you are?" Kuro asked with a calm voice, but not quite as calm as he talked previously. He definitely had the same feeling as me.

"But that's no fun! I like being a mystery! That way, other pokemon never, and I mean NEVER, know what you're up to!" The happy tone that she talked with kind of creeped me out. "However, I guess you won't talk unless I do, so ears open! my name is Grace, and my boss has given me an order to exterminate you!" She said in an overdramatic voice. _She wants to… exterminate us? Wait, before that…_

"Who is your boss and why do they want us exterminated?" I asked her. She cast me an observing stare, as her eyes fell on the Nest symbol on the side of my body, the same spot as Kuro's. He grin widened to a disturbing smile.

"Wait, YOU'RE a Raven too!? Great! Two for one! I am going to have a looot of fuuun~~" She sang out. "Alright, you asked a question, and so I shall answer!" Grace turned her head to the side and shifted one of her leaf-like ears to the side, and I felt a shiver. On the back of her ear was a symbol that I didn't think I'd be seeing here. Kuro lowered his stance, getting into a defensive position before lowly growling, and I did the same. "Hold on! Hold on! I haven't even said anything yet! Then again… it was kind of stupid of me to think you wouldn't know our symbol… Oh well! I do a lot of stupid things!" She shifted her ear back to its normal position and bowed her head. "Well you see, I am an admin at the Void, Luna's trusty servant, Grace! Maybe trusty servant isn't the right word… I mean I don't have the best work ethic, and Luna keeps coming after me for not adhering to the schedule that she gave me… But whatever! I'm me!" She shot her head up and looked at Kuro and I again. "Also, not to scare you or anything… Actually… In order to scare you, let me tell you," her stare shifted from carefree to threatening for a split second, before her gaze went back to that of an energetic child. "I'm known as the fourth strongest in the Void, only behind… um… you know what, that doesn't matter." Grace began to laugh at herself, but I barely heard her after a certain part of her sentence. _What does she mean… fourth strongest..?_

I looked at Kuro and his eyes were wide, but I couldn't tell if he was scared or surprised, perhaps a little bit of both. It's not like I didn't feel scared. If anything, I was now terrified of the leafeon standing a little distance away from us, it was just hard to accept my fear because of her personality. She acted almost… childish. Maybe childish wasn't the right word, but she didn't act like a standard Void member, that's for sure. She immediately gave us her position at the Void, told us why she was here, and made a bunch of sarcastic comments while doing so, definitely not what you'd expect from a Void admin, one of the strongest at that. However, even with her strange personality, I still felt fear creep up on me while looking at her. Grace was just standing still now, chuckling at our silence.

"What's wrong? I wasn't scary before, was I? Was it something I said~~?" She sang out, before walking towards us again. Kuro was still crouched down a little bit in front of me, so I moved up next to him and took a similar stance. It made us look harder to take down when we were together… But I also just wanted to be near him to help quell my fear a bit.

"K-Kuro? Have a plan?" I shakily asked him, not doing so well at hiding my fear.

"We need to find a way to get away from her, but we can't just leave the idiots behind us." As much as I disliked them, I agreed with Kuro. Despite all the things they did to me, leaving anyone to die was not an option. "I say we-"

"Hey! I don't know who you are, but don't interfere with my battle!" A Hitmonchan walked in front of us and stood close to Grace. "I know that whatever you just said is all talk, how about you put some actions behind it!?" _What is he doing!?_

Grace looked at him with a stoic expression before smirking. "I thought the peanut gallery was supposed to stay quiet." She walked right in front of him before crouching down. "I might have to force you to shut up." Grace spun her body around and slammed her leaf-like tail into the Hitmonchan's stomach, and I heard a loud crack, followed by a scream. The hitmonchan flew high into the air while screaming his lungs out. "You did this to yourself!" Grace launched a green ball of energy from the leaf on her forehead which rapidly flew towards the hitmonchan.

"Idiot…" I heard Kuro mutter from beside me before he extended two large tendrils from his back. He slammed one of them to the ground, propelling him into the air in between the attack and the hitmonchan. He grabbed the hitmonchan with one tendril, prompting him to scream even louder. He used the other tendril to deflect the energy ball, which seemed to be putting up quite a bit of resistance. Kuro's tendril was pushing harshly against it, and he looked like the attack had frozen him in mid-air. With enough effort, Kuro managed to slam the attack out of the way, which plummeted quickly to the ground behind Grace, shaking the earth and creating a crater in the road. The impact almost made me fall over. Kuro also had gravity pull him to the ground, but he used his free tendril as a landing mechanism, covering him from a decent drop onto a stone ground. He quickly ran over to the rest of the group and set the hitmonchan down in front of them before saying something that I couldn't make out. I took a guess and assumed that he was telling them to get the hitmonchan, and themselves out of here. The rampardos of the group lifted the hitmonchan into their arms before bolting around a corner, but not fully leaving the area. I didn't know if it was because they were interested in the situation or what, but they didn't seem to have any intentions of leaving. As much as this bothered me, neither Kuro nor I had the time to do anything about it. Kuro retracted his tendrils back into his body and ran back to join me. The two of us turned to Grace, going back into a battle stance.

"It looks like we'll need to…" Kuro paused for a few seconds, letting out a small grunt. "Hold her off to the best of our ability." I nodded in response, assuming that Kuro's pause had to do with his recoil.

"How much do you to think you can do to me?" Grace took a few more steps towards us. I tried my best to not start shaking, knowing all too well that Kuro and I were about to have to fight for our lives. "Come on… The two of you are both Ravens, I'm sure you have quite a bit of potential. The question is, how much of it have you tapped into?" Grace crouched down, giving us a knowing smile. Both Kuro and I tensed our muscles.

"Get ready Naru!"

"Right!"

Kuro and I prepared to dash in opposite directions, wanting to separate ourselves and make it harder for our opponent to keep track of us, but we didn't get the chance. Within a second, Grace was between both of us. We both attempted to react, but the side of my body was kicked hard, and it looked like the same happened to Kuro. I felt a strong pain in my side as I slid across the ground, trying to stop myself from toppling over. I shook off the pain and looked for Grace. I found her rushing towards Kuro, who still hadn't fully recovered from the surprise first attack. I quickly shot off a ball of ice, aimed directly at her. She knew it was coming though, and turned her head around to step out of the way of the attack. Once she did, an energy ball was shot in my direction at steadily increasing speed, before it was flying at me almost faster than I could track. I ducked under it, feeling it graze my fur. I looked back and saw it barely miss two buildings that were right behind me, before crashing into an alleyway, cracking the stone of the two buildings it had barely missed and shaking the ground with pressure. I looked back at Grace to see her smirking at me.

"Not bad at al-" Grace's sentence was cut off by Kuro slamming his tail into her head, which made her slide back a few feet. I noticed that Kuro had a small line of blood dripping from his mouth. _She must have hit him in the face rather than his body._ Grace quickly recovered from Kuro's strike and rushed back at him, slamming her head into his chest, and launching him into the air. Kuro let out a grunt and flipped his body around to land on his paws. After landing, he tried his best to shake off the impact of the attack. I used the opportunity to run over to them, as it was clear that being separated in this battle wasn't a good idea. I ended up right next to Grace while she was still looking in Kuro's direction. She noticed me approaching and attempted to slice me with the leaf on her forehead. I barely ducked under it, but it nicked one of the appendages hanging from the crown on my forehead, which drew a bit of blood. I unsheathed a claw and swiped it at Grace, but she spun her body just enough to have the attack miss her, and then kicked me in the side of the head with one of her back legs. I ended up spinning to face the other direction from the force, and my head began to ache in pain. I turned my head around to see Grace getting ready to slash me again. Before I could try and counter, she was hit by a shadow ball from out of my vision. It didn't send her back at all, but it distracted her from me, so I lowered my body temperature and shot off a point-blank ice beam at her. I managed to connect with one of her forepaws as she attempted to jump away from the attack, freezing it on contact. She then uneasily landed on the ground and Kuro ran at her and swung his body around with his tail emanating a silver-like glow. Grace reacted fast enough to counter with her own tail, which she collided with Kuro's, bringing them to a small clash where they were both frozen in place. Thank Arceus that Kuro encased his tail in an iron glow and didn't use it regularly, otherwise, he would have gotten his tail sliced clean off. Kuro ended the clash by shooting off a dark pulse at Grace, hitting her in the in the center of her back and pushing Kuro away in the other direction. The two landed across from each other and locked eyes. I ran over to stand next to Kuro in case she tried a fast assault again. Instead of rushing us, she just curiously gazed towards us, sending a shiver down my spine.

"You know, you two are doing better than I thought, I was expecting this to be a one-sided slaughter, but it looks like I was wrong." She unsheathed one of her claws through the ice covering it and held it up in front of her face. "Hell, I might even have to try a little bit to take down the two of you." Grace put her forepaw back to the ground, and lifted the other one so we were looking at the center of the paw pad. Soon after, I saw a small sparkle in her paw, and before I could question what it was, I saw a thin needle shoot out from her, coming straight at me. I tilted my head to the side just enough to dodge it, but felt it graze me just like Grace's leaf blade earlier. However, this time, it left behind a numbing feeling on the surface of my skin, which I thought was a bit odd, but I soon made a connection. Before I could vocalize it, Grace shot out many more of the same needles, aimed at both Kuro and I. The two of us managed to barely dodge all of them, but we ended up farther apart then we would have liked. Grace saw this and then tried to rush in on us again, but before she could make contact with either of us, I had to give a warning out.

"Kuro! Stay clear of those needles, I think they're poisoned!" Kuro snapped his head to me for a second and nodded, making sure that I saw it.

"Awwwww… Why did you have to ruin the surprise?" Both of us looked back at Grace. "Luna helped me develop a way to attack with poison, and it's usually best used when my opponents don't know about it, but you went and ruined that." Grace hardened her eyes into a glare. "Not that it matters in the first place, It's pretty obvious that today will be your last day on this planet. I haven't been putting any effort into any of these attacks, and yet the two of you seem to have trouble keeping up." _She's… She's not even trying..?_

I shuddered at the thought of what Grace could really do if she was serious, but it looked like she kicked it up into second gear. I figured this out by how quickly she ended up in front of me. It seemed like I blinked, and then Grace was on top of me. She swung her head at me, aiming to slit my throat with a leaf blade. I managed to avoid getting my throat slit by moving my head down, but she landed a deep slash on the top of my head, prompting me to let out a small shriek. She then turned her body and kicked me in the side of the head, sending me flying a lot further than her previous hits did. The head pain I had earlier greatly worsened, and blood from the wound on my head clouded my vision. I fell on my side, making harsh contact with the stone road below me. Grace came over to me and looked down into my eyes.

"You should have realized you were supremely outclassed." She put a forepaw on my head. "Time for you to-" I felt the weight of Grace's body shift, and looked at the source. Kuro had latched his jaw onto the back of Grace's neck, attempting to drag her away, but barely piercing through her skin. Grace seemed to be trying to shake Kuro off, but was failing to do so. I saw a faint glow around Kuro's head, and he shut his eyes, and then managed to dig his teeth deeper into the back of her neck, drawing blood this time. Grace grunted in pain for the first time in this battle.

"Well aren't you a feisty one, Blacky?" Kuro had managed to drag Grace a small distance away from me, and I barely managed to stand back up on all fours. I took in heavy breaths, trying to steady myself. I watched as Grace continued to shake Kuro off of her. "I've had enough of you!" Grace shouted at Kuro, and then conducted a green dome around herself, expanding and launching Kuro off of her, sending him into a building close to us. The stones on the building cracked, and Kuro fell to the ground, but still stood on all four of his paws, although panting heavily. He glared at Grace, and she just smiled in return.

"Look at yourself, you can barely stand, are you still going to fight back? Or will you just submit and accept your death, along with hers." She pointed a forepaw towards me, also barely standing. Kuro just grit his teeth, and growled at Grace. He looked beyond angry, more than I've ever seen him.

"You… You've hurt so many pokemon as an admin of the Void, and you serve the evilest pokemon I know." Kuro strengthened his stance, and his body started to glow more intensely than earlier. His golden rings lit up along with the black aura surrounding his body. "You can threaten me and hurt me all you want…" Kuro put on an intense glare and crouched his body down. "But… STAY AWAY FROM NARU!" Kuro yelled, and a stream of black arrows came from the center of his body and rose to the air. They circled the air above Kuro's body, and then rapidly shot off towards Grace. Each arrow made contact with her, exploding and shaking the earth on impact. Grace let out a shriek, and flew backwards into another building, shattering whatever windows it had and nearly knocking it down. She fell to the ground and landed on her stomach, before looking back at the umbreon that stood fifty feet away from her. He was panting even more heavily than before, and he suddenly fell down onto his stomach, gritting his teeth and grunting in pain. His recoil did not go unnoticed by Grace, who stood back up on all fours, and shook off whatever pain she was feeling. She gave an anticipating grin.

Grace sped towards Kuro at lightning speed, reaching him faster than I could follow. She rose a paw above his head, and I saw Kuro's eyes widen. "I have you now!" A small needle shot out of Grace's paw, and pierced into the glowing ring on Kuro's forehead. As soon as the needle sunk into Kuro, he loudly gasped, and his eyelids lowered slightly. He began to hyperventilate, and he grunted in pain as his stamina was drained. Grace stood over him, and began to laugh hysterically.

"HA! I actually hit you with it! That poison won't kill you, but good luck getting back up anytime soon!" Grace taunted, while Kuro just layed on the ground, unable to do anything. I observed the scene from a distance, still barely able to move. I was standing, albeit unsteadily, but I wasn't too confident in my abilities to walk at this point. Regardless of that though, I kept on taking steps towards the laughing leafeon standing over my partner. I had a brief flashback of what Kuro had yelled a few moments ago, while releasing that large-scale attack that seemed to do some actual damage to Grace. He… put himself through a lot of pain to make sure that Grace got away from me. He pushed himself past what he should have been capable of, just because he wanted me to be safe. He did all of this… And I just sat there, barely able to move. How pathetic was that, letting your best friend get hurt beyond belief, just because you took a few hits? _I want… to protect him… as much as he wants to protect me!_

Grace seemed to be to occupied laughing at her own victory to notice me approaching, so I broke into a slow run after my body began to get used moving, despite the pain coursing through my body.

"Better yet, I didn't even kill you, so now I get to take not only you, but that glaceon too, and I get two new toys to play wi-" I formed a ball of ice in my mouth, and ended up about two feet away from Grace, while she was still completely unaware of my approach. I swung my neck back, and slammed the ball of ice directly into Grace's head, sending her flying into the air. I looked up and saw her look back at me with a glare. Before she could recover, I shot off an ice beam, connecting directly with her chest. The super-effective attack made her moan in pain, before falling to the ground, but managing to land on all fours. There was now a large chunk of ice on her chest, going along with the ice wrapped around her paw. Grace glared at me harshly.

"What's the point of this struggle? You're still dead, no matter what." I spat out a small amount of blood from my mouth, coming from Grace's kicks earlier.

"Kuro… He protected me no matter what… So I'm doing the same for him!" I yelled out to her. My body felt exhausted, but that didn't matter, I was ready to do whatever was necessary to stand my ground.

"You were going to get out of here alive, but now, I don't have the patience!" Grace looked as if she was about to lunge at me, but right as she took her first step, her eyes widened, and she dropped all of the weight in one of her forepaws. She took in a few heavy breaths, and I was clueless as to the reason why. Something pulled my attention away from Grace though. It was a soft feeling brushing up against the side of my body, a feeling that I've felt before. I turned my head to the side, and saw Kuro shakily standing on his four paws, but he was leaning up against me for extra support. It helped me stay standing as well, but I wasn't exactly concerned about that right now. I was much more concerned with what exactly was happening to Grace right now.

"Y...You…" Grace looked up into Kuro's eyes and smirked. "Blacky… You crafty little umbreon…" Kuro just kept on taking heavy breaths, and it looked like he was struggling to stay conscious. "I suppose this is what the Assassin meant when he told me to be careful… Not of your strength, but of your will." Grace coughed a few times, and the tips of the leaves located all over her body began to change color. They changed from the normal green color into a deep purple. _Is she… poisoned..?_

The realization hit me like a truck. I forgot about Kuro's ability, one that lets him transfer certain injuries or attacks he sustained back to his enemy, including a debilitating poison. Grace was still standing in front of us, down a forepaw, smirking at herself for being careless.

"But still… How exactly can you stand..? My poison… it should have knocked you out at least." I could tell that Grace's own poison was beginning to affect her severely. It wasn't only affecting her ability to stand, but her speech as well.

"You… don't know… how I lived my life until recently." Kuro responded, also having a hard time forming words. "I spent a lot of time surviving… on my own… including figuring out what plants and berries… were poisonous or not… through trial and error." Kuro began breathing heavily again, his consciousness seeming to fade out more and more by the second. "I… would bet a lot… on my body being more… resistant to poison… than yours…" Kuro coughed.

Grace just kept her smirk, almost as if she didn't know what to do now. Her muscles seemed to tense up, and she jumped onto one of the broken windows of one of the multi-colored buildings that our battle took place around. She then swiftly hopped from that building to the blue one across from it, and back to the first one again, until she reached the roof. She peered over the roof, smiling at the two of us, barely able to stand, before turning away and walking further onto the roof, out of our sight.

As soon as Grace was out of sight, Kuro collapsed to the ground again, still breathing heavily, but with his eyes closed. I was about to call out to him, I wanted to make sure he was okay, but I felt my weight drop to the ground as well, the upper half of my body falling right beside Kuro's. A few moments later, my vision went black.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Another chapter done at the brink of midnight… I need to improve my sleeping schedule so I don't waste every bit of my money on coffee in the morning. However, I think it's worth it to keep on typing this story!

I also want to mention, I now have an actual beta to look over my work, so I won't be using my faulty proofreading skills to check these chapters before they go up, which will be a great improvement to the story in the future! (Thanks to 8-BitUmbreon for reading over what I write before it goes to the site!) [You're welcome!]

Finally, thank all of you who actively send me reviews, kind PMs, criticism, etc. I love every bit of it and I haven't missed reading one yet!

See You Next Chapter!


	21. Aftermath

**Vero**

The Nest has been a bit of an unorganized place as of recent. Ever since that gallade came from nowhere and tried to both take Shiro and kill Kage, most pokemon have been in a panicked state. It wasn't really surprising, after all, this place was always considered a safe place to stay for all of the Ravens that work here, and to have their security breached like that so suddenly was… unsettling to say the least. That's not to say it didn't affect me at all, but I feel like everyone else was freaking out about the situation more than they should have been. Then again, I don't think I've been here long enough to make a judgement like that.

Kage has been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past few hours, but he was in better condition than he was initially. The first day his injuries were given to him, he didn't wake up at all, so at least we had some signs that he was getting better. Honestly, when I brought him back to one of the Nest's infirmaries right after he was attacked, I was a bit more than worried. I knew he was training earlier that day, and his mentor isn't exactly lenient. Not only that, but the gaping wound on the side of his body made me nauseous. I was glad I stopped his bleeding as soon as I could, otherwise he might have actually bled out. I was, however, grateful that he had managed to do a lot of damage to that gallade before I stepped in to battle him, as it made the confrontation fairly one-sided. For some reason, the gallade didn't go through with their initial decision to mega-evolve on me, and although I don't understand why, I can't complain, it made my life a lot easier.

Along in the infirmary to watch over Kage with was Shiro, who still seemed shaken after the experience. I don't blame her, I may have thought that all of the other Ravens were taking this too harshly, but Shiro had more than an excuse for it. Even if you don't take her age into consideration, the fact that she knew that the gallade was there specifically to take her must have put a lot of fear into her mind. It was relieving that the situation was over and done with, and even more so that everyone made it out okay, despite the discord that came with it, but hopefully it wouldn't affect Shiro for too long. _She already has enough to think about, this weighing on her won't help anything. Hopefully when Kuro and Naru come back, they can help with how she's feeling._

At the moment, Shiro was just staring at Kage, who was unconscious for the time being. The infirmary was a good place to have an injured pokemon rest, since the room looked a lot like a traditional hospital room. The walls had white tiles covering their entirety, along with the floor and the ceiling. The room had two counters on the side of the room opposite to the bed Kage was resting on, which were separated by the door leading into the infirmary. The bed that was used here had white cushions, contrary to the straw beds that most of the rooms had. It was necessary for certain tests or exercises that pokemon needed to do while they were here, plus it just helped with the comfort of the patient. Part of me wanted to try and comfort Shiro in some way, as she was obviously worried about Kage, but I felt like all of her worries matched up with mine, so there really wasn't much I could say to her, and I didn't want to lie. I just sighed to myself, waiting for Kage to eventually regain consciousness again, since that would make both Shiro and I feel better about the situation.

After a little while of leaning against a wall and resting my mind, I heard the door to the infirmary creak open, and I turned my head to look in that direction. I was expecting it to be someone who I was familiar with, but I wasn't expecting Kuro's mentor to walk into the room. After he closed the door behind him, I began to think of possible reasons why he might be here, but none really came to mind. I knew that he had some interaction with Shiro in the past, so maybe he was here to make sure she was alright after what happened? Kai turned his head to look at me with a poker face.

"Hello. I'm here to inform you that Kage should be waking up soon, according to some doctors, although, he's going to have some soreness to deal with." He informed me. It was… odd to get this information from Kai of all pokemon, as I don't think he's ever interacted with either me or Kage, but I just went with it. I was relieved to have the information regardless.

"Thank you, my worries were starting to come back, seeing as he hasn't stayed awake for more than ten minutes at a time." I looked at Kage and let a small smile creep onto my lips. _Glad you're going to be okay._

Kai just nodded his head, but he looked like something was bothering him. As if to confirm my suspicions, he turned his head back up and looked at me again. "I have a quick question. You didn't happen to notice a scar on one of the eyes of the gallade that attacked you, did you?" He almost sounded concerned. Also, this was the second time I was being asked this, the first time coming from Core, wanting to confirm that the gallade did indeed have a scar over one of his eyes after he got in touch with Kuro and Naru via these strange mechanisms that communicate your thoughts. _Why does this keep coming up..?_

"Yes," I put one of my claws over my eye to imitate what kind of scar the gallade had. "Right about here, he had a scar that kept one of his eyes closed." Kai seemed to think about this information I had just given him for a few seconds with his head down, before looking back up at me once more.

"Okay, thank you. One more question, are you familiar with a leader here named Aven? The flygon?" Alright, now I was really starting to get confused. _Why did he come up all of a sudden too?_ I nodded my head to Kai, after all, it was kind of hard to forget the 'Nest leader' who tried to kill you by throwing you off a multi-hundred thousand foot drop. "Good. If at all possible, keep that girl away from him at all costs." Kai rose one of his paws to point at Shiro, who had just been observing the conversation from the side. She tilted her head, and I wondered why as well. "I… can't really say why, but you need to keep her away from him no matter what. Otherwise, we may have a repeat event of the other day."

Well, I kind of had my question answered. I suppose if that gallade was a Void member, and Aven was as well, then they would both be after Shiro, but then the 'why' came back to my head. Why did the Void want Shiro in the first place? And how does Kai know about Aven if they're both leaders at the Nest? One question was answered, only to bring two more out into the open.

"You don't really need to be secretive about why Shiro can't be near Aven." Kai looked up at me questioningly. "I'm not going to pry on how you know about it, but I've nearly been killed by him in the past, in the Void's base no less, so I know that he's dangerous."

"Right, I forgot you were one of the three that got taken by the Void a while ago." Kai seemed to re-enter his mind and look back to the ground again. I was glad he came to inform me that Kage was going to be okay, and the heads up about Aven showed me that Kai actually cared about his position here at the Nest, his position to keep pokemon safe. _I'm actually having a hard time imagining him beating up Kuro right now…_

"Just how dangerous is Aven compared to the rest of the Void though? I mean, when I ran into him, he seemed like he had a high position there."

"More than you can imagine." Kai responded without looking up. "Keeping your distance is the best thing you can do when it comes to Aven, because if you press your luck too much, he won't hold back." Kai shook his head.

"Do you have any idea why the Void might want Shiro?" Kai squinted his eyes towards the ground for a second, an action I found a bit odd. He went into another few moments of thinking, as if considering whether to tell me something or not. I had no idea how he knew so much in the first place, or what more information he might have, but he obviously had more knowledge of what went on behind the scenes than most Ravens, so I was going to salvage this while I could. After a minute or two passed, Kai took a breath and looked at me.

"Shiro has been given a drug that took away her memories." My eyes stayed on Kai's, but I did see Shiro sudder out of the corner of one of them. Kai almost looked like he didn't want to continue because of her being there, but I nodded at him to signal more of an explanation. It would be better for Shiro to hear it first-hand anyway. "I'm… fairly positive, based on patterns from some of the Void's victims in the past, that this is the first time the Void has tried using this drug, and they want to monitor its effects on the body. In order to confirm their research, they would need Shiro back." Kai gave a small sigh. "That's only one possibility though, there's an alternative that can either work in our favor, or backfire."

"And that is?" I curiously asked.

"Certain drugs that the Void produces have… varying side-effects. I don't mean to scare Shiro, but it's very possible that this drug did more than just erase her memory." I looked at Shiro to see her begin to slightly shake, but I rested one of my paws on her back to help her a little bit. I felt guilty for pushing this subject, despite Shiro being right here, but we needed information. "Now, this may not necessarily be something to worry too much about. It's most likely not going to kill her, and it likely won't hurt her. Considering that the Void went as far as to send an admin into the Nest in order to attempt to retrieve her leads me to believe that. If it was going to make her suffer or kill her, they would just leave the situation as is and wait for the result to take place. The fact that they're putting so much effort into getting Shiro back there… makes me think that the drug is going to do something much more than just cause death."

I started to rub Shiro's back, hopefully comforting her through this information dump. Admittedly, something Kai just said bothered me, but I couldn't think about it right now. "Do you have any idea what it might do?"

"If I had to give my best guess, I'd say it may enhance her body strength, or control over her element. By the looks of certain Void members, it looks like a drug like that is what they're trying to produce as of now, but I'm not certain." Kai looked at Shiro. "You should let someone know if you feel different at all at any time. It might have something to do with what they gave you." Shiro shakily nodded her head. "In the future, if anything happens, relay the information to me, and to Kuro and Naru assuming they don't already know. " After that statement, Kai abruptly turned around and exited the room. It almost looked like he was getting uncomfortable with the conversation.

I thought back to something that Kai said in the middle of our conversation, something that bothered me. I told myself I wouldn't question how Kai knew all of this information, but I couldn't really ignore it after what was said. He would be able to figure out what the Void was trying to do through patterns in their victims, but not certain Void member's positions. _He called that gallade an admin… and Core described him as a member when he talked to me… So how would Kai know what Core doesn't?_

I turned my head behind me at the sound of moving. Kage was stirring in his sleep, and looked as if he was finally going to wake up for good. I decided that I would talk this uneasiness I had over with someone else another time, and focus on Kage for now.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I felt myself wake up, but I just stared at the back of my eyelids. I found it hard to move, and I didn't really know where I was. Below me, I felt cold stone, like I was still outside somewhere, but under my head felt decidedly softer, rough, but not quite as much as the ground below my body. I felt sluggish, sore, and immobile. I took a guess and thought that the poison that was injected into me by Grace hadn't fully worn off yet, and that's why my body didn't only feel sore, but also had a distinct numbness to it. Because I wasn't dead, and because of the texture below my head, I was able to deduce that we were somewhat safe, or at least, not captured by the Void, which was a positive. With that thought in mind, I let my body relax for a few more minutes.

After said time passed, I slowly opened my eyelids, looking up at a blue sky, and seeing the top of two buildings on either side of me. Luckily, the buildings were blocking the sun for the most part, so I wasn't practically blinded upon opening my eyelids. I was laying on my side, and my head was resting on my bag, which was covered by my scarf. I managed to lift my head up after a little bit of effort, and after the lulling pain in my neck settled down, I turned my head to observe the area I was in.

The first thing I noticed was that Naru was also passed out, lying right next to me in a similar fashion. I gave a large sigh of relief that she was okay, because I remember her coming to help me near the end of our battle with Grace, but her poison was affecting my hearing rather negatively. I could tell Naru shouted something from right next to me, and I couldn't make out exactly what she said, and when Grace asked me how I was still standing, I had to read her lips. In short, I barely had any idea of what was happening right at the end, other than the fact that I used my synchronize to poison Grace while I still had the strength to do so. I felt relieved that Naru was okay, as I was unsure.

I noticed something else while looking at her though, and that was the giant, crimson-stained bandage on her head. I remembered that Naru got slashed pretty badly during the fight, and I was glad that it was bandaged, but that rose an obvious question. _Who did this..?_

That wasn't all, she also had a lot of smaller bandages all over her body seemingly to cover any other wounds we received from Grace that weren't nearly as bad as the one on her head. I looked down at myself to see that I was patched up the same way, although not quite as much. What weirded me out was that I had bandages over wounds that I didn't even remember receiving in the first place. _She must have hit me even more than I thought…_

While looking around at my surroundings, I didn't see anyone other than the sleeping glaceon next to me, which made me wonder who exactly found us and made sure we didn't bleed out, and not leave us in the middle of a street. _Who would take the time to help us and then leave immediately..?_ Considering my past experiences with this town, it was a bit odd to be helped out by who I assumed to be complete strangers, especially after we were kind of the cause of quite a bit of damage to the buildings surrounding us, but they may have taken our injuries into account and assumed it was the work of someone else. _Either way, I'm glad whoever did this took the time._

I was about to attempt to push myself off of the ground, but I immediately realized that was a mistake. I could barely feel any of my legs, so moving them in order to stand was not going to happen. Even if I did manage to get up off of the ground, I would probably fall back down immediately. _I wonder how long this poison is going to last..?_ I let out a sigh, hoping that nothing would happen while the two of us were pretty much incapacitated on the ground.

After a few more minutes passed, I felt the numbness in my legs slowly dissipate, and I attempted to get up. After falling to the ground a few times, I managed to push my upper body up with my two forepaws. I began to take deep breaths, making sure not to fall down again. All that was left was to push up off of my back paws, and stand myself up. I didn't feel nearly as numb as I did right as I woke up, but it was still there, as was muscle soreness, but it wasn't to the point of stopping my movement. I took another deep breath and began to push off the ground with my two back paws, and I started to rise off of the ground. Once my body was being fully supported by my four legs, I just stood in one spot and tried to get my legs used to standing. I was a bit unsteady, but I held my stance and felt more numbness leave my body. _If I just stay like this, then I should be better in a little bit._

I turned my eyes to Naru, who was uncomfortably twitching a little bit. She was probably close to waking up, which was good, because I felt like we should get out of the position we found ourselves in as soon as we could. Grace seemed to be gone, and that poison was going to do just as much to her as it did to me, if not more, so I wasn't worried about her coming after us. I was more worried about what other pokemon might do if they find us in this kind of condition. _With the rate that my nerves are coming back, I should be able to move better in a few-_

My thoughts were cut off when something swept under one of my back legs, throwing me off-balance and making me fall back onto the ground, my head missing my bag and colliding with the stone. I felt an ache travel up my head, and the numbness in my body return a little bit. I let out a small groan in both pain and slight annoyance. I looked behind me to see one of Naru's back legs right next to mine, she probably moved in her sleep and kicked me by accident. I sighed, but also smiled, before moving my head back to my bag while waiting for the ache in my head to settle down a little bit.

After a few more minutes of not moving at all, Naru's body began to shift more, scraping against the rocky ground under us. I turned my head to look at her, and picked it up off of my bag, the ache having settled. I watched as Naru's eyes tiredly opened, and looked up into the sky, just as I did. She let out a small groan, similar to what I did after she accidentally kicked me. I would think she's a lot more sore than I was, considering the wound on her head. After staring at the sky for a bit, Naru looked at me as I was trying to push myself on my front two paws again. She immediately put a paw to her head after moving it an inch, and groaned again. She ended up being hit in the head multiple times during our confrontation with Grace, so it was probably killing her. If my soreness was any indication, than she was probably feeling worse, as I didn't take multiple hits to any one area of my body, just a lot of hits in general.

"Hey, Naru." I greeted, prompting her head to turn towards me. "How are you feeling?" A bit of a stupid question.

"Ugh…. my head feels like it's about to explode…" Her voice sounded pained. "What about you?"

"I'm numb all over, and sore, but probably not as much as you." Naru looked up with her head resting on the bag beneath her.

"Didn't you pass out before me? How did we get here?" Naru slowly turned her head from one side to the other, looking at the walls that surrounded us, but she flinched every time she moved, which was hard for me to watch.

"I'm not sure who took us here," I felt the nerves in my two front legs begin to come back to me. "But, whoever it was, I'm glad they did. Otherwise we would have been out in the middle of the street, and who knows how that would have turned out…"

"No… kidding…" Naru groaned again. _She really must be in a lot of pain…_

"You should keep resting, it'll help with your pain." I really didn't like seeing Naru like this. It stirred up a very uncomfortable feeling within me, especially since I knew I couldn't do much to help her with it.

"Will you be okay... here by yourself? In case someone dangerous comes by?" I shook my head.

"I'll be fine. I'm starting to feel my muscles again, so I'm sure I can deal with a problem if one arises."

"If… you say so…" Naru slowly closed her eyes and her breathing became steady. She had taken her forepaw off of her head and placed it to the side of her body, on top of her other forepaw. While she was laying on her side, facing me, I realized that the reddening of the bandage on the top of her began to leak out, which meant her head wound was still bleeding. I tried my hardest and managed to slide my body back a few feet using my two front legs, and I dug my head into the bag I had just been laying on. After a bit of searching, I found a small roll of bandages that I brought here, although, it looked a lot smaller than when we first arrived here. Not that it was surprising.

With a bit of creative movement from my front two paws, I managed to peel off a large bandage from the roll and stick the top part of it to my leg. I then adjusted my body more in order to face Naru. I bent my head down and managed to grip the very end of the bandage on her head with my teeth, and I slowly pulled it off, careful to not disturb Naru to the best of my ability. After putting the bloodied bandage to the side, I got a good look at Naru's wound, which initially made me flinch. She had a deep red slash on her head, which was now leaking out more blood. Trying my best to not think about how that felt, I bent my neck down to my leg, and slowly took the bandage off, taking a few barely visible strands of my fur with it. I, somewhat bashfully, brought my face back down right over Naru's. I adjusted my head so the end of the bandage I wasn't holding landed on one side of her wound, and then placed the side I was holding on the other end. After bringing my head back up, I took a deep breath, and then rose one of my front paws, putting the weight of my upper body onto one leg. I took a second to steady myself, and then gently placed my other paw on the end of the bandage on Naru's head, before slowly smoothing it out, once again, trying my best to not disturb her in any way. Once I saw that the bandage was firm, and now absorbing whatever blood was still leaking from Naru's head, I placed the paw that I used back on the ground, making it much easier to hold myself up.

I took in another breath, and then pushed my back two legs against the ground, pushing the rest of my body up to stand. My back legs were shaking, but I was standing, and after my whole body was used to standing with the numbness, I could give walking a shot, which would probably take me a few tries. I definitely felt better now than when I woke up initially, and I felt ready to move my body. I lifted one of my forepaws off of the ground and placed it down a little bit ahead of my body, and then did the same with one of my back paws. I then took my other forepaw and placed it forward to match with the first one, and repeated the step with my other back paw, successfully taking a step forward, but it took a lot more effort than I would have liked.

I took a few more steps, slowly walking in a circle. Each time I moved my paws forward again, I felt my muscles resisting, but step after step, I felt the numbness in my body slowly leave me. My movements began to feel fluent again, despite still feeling somewhat forced. After about fifteen small circles, I felt confident in my ability to walk, although, I was swaying back and forth a bit on occasion. I didn't mind it too much though, it was a lot better than my lack of movement beforehand. I decided that it would be a good idea to walk to the entrance of the alleyway and see what kind of place we ended up in, so I did just that.

Once I made it to the point of entry, I looked back and forth down the street, observing the many random pokemon that were passing by. This was definitely not where Naru and I battled Grace. The buildings were different colors, as well as sizes. They were a lot smaller here, and there was no damage to the road or the buildings themselves, so this was clearly not the same place. _We should apologize for the damage later…_

The street we were next to seemed to be somewhat crowded, a large amount of pokemon walking down it, nearly filling the entire thing. I quickly adjusted my scarf to cover my Raven symbol, or as quickly as I could, still feeling just a little bit numb. I didn't want there to be any more Void members lurking in this town, and if they were present, I didn't want them to jump Naru and I while we were unable to defend ourselves well. We were playing a waiting game at this point, the two of us needed to be in a half-decent condition before we moved out again, but I wasn't sure how long that was going to take. _It's not like I have the strength to carry Naru at the moment, and she shouldn't be walking much until she feels better._

I was about to turn around and walk back to Naru, but I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, something quickly gliding above the crowd of pokemon walking down the streets. At first, I couldn't make out what it was, but it looked like there were two of them, and they seemed to be flying back and forth over the large group of passing pokemon. The two blurs of motion looked like other pokemon, although because of their fast movement, I couldn't really determine what species they were. One of them looked mostly dark, with a hint of red in the blur, and the other one had a combination of blue and white. The two shapes seemed to slow down a bit as they got closer to the alleyway, and I began to make out features, such as one of them having large, cloud-like wings, the other set of wings being a dark color, matching that of the blur. _Wait… Isn't that…_

The two shapes seemed to notice me looking at them and then sped in my direction swiftly, both of them stopping right in front of me after nearly slamming into a majority of the crowd. Because they no longer looked like unrecognizable clumps of matter, I was able to identify the two pokemon hovering a little bit off of the ground in front of me. One of them was Aria, and the other one was, oddly enough, Cole, the one I battled in the semi-finals of the applicants' tournament. I tilted my head in slight confusion. _What are they doing here..?_

"Silent Umbreon!" The Altaria greeted me with a nickname I wasn't too fond of. "Glad to see you're okay! I was worried about you and Naru!" _She was… worried?_

"Everyone at the Nest is panicking right now, so I'm glad we didn't lose two Ravens all the way out here. Glad to see you're all right!" Cole told me. This was the first time I had ever spoken with him, he held a similar energetic tone to Aria's, although not quite to the same volume as her. Cole exaggeratedly put one of his wings in front of his chest and tried to bow his neck exaggeratedly. "As you probably know, my name is Cole, nice to officially meet you, Silent Umbreon!" I appreciated his politeness, but not the nickname that Aria seemed to have spread to him. In response, I gave a small chuckle, hiding the slight annoyance I felt. After all, considering the situation that Naru and I found ourselves in, I was more than happy to see these two right now.

"Nice to officially meet you too, Cole." I bowed my head slightly. "Also, I'd prefer if you called me Kuro." Cole laughed in response.

"I would have greeted you normally, but Aria convinced me that you had a normal nickname that other pokemon called you, I guess I should have stayed skeptical." He took a quick glance at Aria who was chuckling to herself. I just lightly sighed and smiled.

"It's no big deal. What are you two doing here though?" I curiously asked, and in response, I received a confused look.

"What do you mean? Looking for you and Naru of course! Neither of you have responded to Core trying to get in touch with you, so he sent us to come and investigate!" Aria exclaimed rather loudly. _When did Core try and come into contact with us..?_ Last time he sent signals to Naru and I, the two of us recognized it instantly, and it seemed like it was a hard thing to miss, but then a possibility popped into my head. _The two of us have been out for a while…_

"It's… kind of a long story." I told them with a small sigh.

"I would think so, judging by the bandages plastered all over your body." Cole added. "But, first off, where's your partner?" I shakily stepped to the side and gave Cole and Aria a line of sight towards Naru, who was still resting on the ground, using her bag as a pillow. She looked like she was resting peacefully, but I knew that the second she woke up, her pain would be back in full force.

"The two of us had a bit of an unfortunate encounter yesterday." I glanced back at Naru again. "We ran into a Void admin, an extremely dangerous one at that. She put us through the fight of our lives, and we barely made it out alive." I thought back to what we went through last night. It really was a miracle that the two of us were alive after that. "We both took a beating, but Naru definitely got the worst of it. Luckily, the two of us are both alive, but it's pretty clear that we didn't get out of that unscathed. She ended up getting hit in the head a lot, and even has a pretty severe wound spreading across the top of her head. Hopefully she'll come out of this all right…" I said worriedly.

"Wow… sounds like you two had an excuse to not respond to Core, sorry for yelling so loudly earlier." Aria said with a nervous chuckle, raising one of her cloud-like wings in the air. I shook my head.

"No, you and Core had every right to worry, there wasn't anything telling you the kind of situation we were in, so you don't need to apologize. I don't think we should move from here until Naru is feeling better though, her head was absolutely killing her when she woke up the first time." I explained to the two of them, and received two separate nods.

"Well, I'm glad the two of you are all right! Plus, I want a rematch with you sometime." Cole rose one of his wings and pointed it towards me. "You beat me because I didn't think you could do much against an aerial opponent, but you clearly proved me wrong… I've gotten a lot better, so you should spar with me when we get back! When you're healed of course." I smiled at Cole's challenge. To think, this is the first time I've interacted with him since our battle in the applicants' tournament, and he already wanted a rematch. I forgot how competitive some pokemon could be, and Cole certainly had some competition ready for me.

"Sure, why not?" I told him, changing my expression to a more challenging smile. "But you know, I've gotten better too. It won't be a walk in the park, especially when I take experiences from my mentor."

"I wouldn't expect anything less! I'll look forward to it!" Cole exclaimed with a similar expression.

"You know, when you talk, you're pretty entertaining Silent Umbreon!" Aria exclaimed with a laugh. "I didn't take you to be the kind that had any kind of competitive spirit, but I guess you proved me wrong!" I kept a smile on my face but let out a sigh.

"Even when I actually talk, you're not going to lay off that name, are you?"

"Not a chance!"

Cole and Aria both laughed, and I held my smile. It felt strange to interact with these pokemon so openly, despite having minimal interaction with them in the past. I didn't even feel awkward like I usually would, I was just speaking with others normally, something that wasn't possible a month and a half ago. Also, these were my teammates, fellow Ravens, pokemon I know I'd have to interact with when the time comes, so it was good to know that I'd be able to if the need arises. It was also good to know that there really were other pokemon on my side, other pokemon than the ones I usually interact with.

I turned around and shakily walked towards Naru again, wanting to check up on her. I still had more than a few issues walking, but I was slowly getting better as time went on. I stood a few feet away from Naru, observing the bandage that I replaced on her head. Luckily, it looked like her head wound had stopped bleeding for the most part, as there wasn't any blood leaking from the bandage that I had placed on her head like there was previously. _Looks like she's doing a little better._

I looked up towards the blue sky, thinking about the events of yesterday a bit more. Besides the injuries we sustained, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't shaken. That Void admin… She acted so… nonchalant. Like she didn't have any type of association with an organization that has probably killed millions. Yet, even with this attitude, she terrified me. I was knocked around like a toy, not doing any damage in return aside from one attack. _To think she wasn't even trying…_ I shivered slightly. _I can't let myself freeze in front of any more Void members… But would I be able to move if I needed to face her again?_ The uncertainty of my own future actions was getting to me, so I told myself I'd talk with Naru about it when she got better. I already knew what the result would be if I kept it within myself, so I decided that I wasn't going to make that mistake again.

I turned to look at Cole and Aria, ready to explain my situation.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Another chapter done, I'm trying to get a chapter out before a week passes from the previous chapter, so hopefully, I'm able to stick to this. (I may end up releasing chapters in less than seven days depending on my schedule, but I'll try my best to not update after seven days.)

I've gotten quite a few more reviews/PMs lately, which really, REALLY makes me happy, so thank all of you who communicate with me! Once more, thanks to my beta-reader to clean up all of my stupid mistakes! (8-BitUmbreon) [You're welcome]

See You Next Chapter!


	22. A Scarring Sight

**?**

The midsection of my body ached beyond my comprehension. Never in my life had one of my bones been broken, so the pain that was bestowed upon me in such a small amount of time baffled my mind. One day right after the next, I had been humiliated by two different pokemon. I didn't know who they were, and I didn't care. I hated both of them with a burning passion, especially the damn umbreon.

It usually took a long time for me to gather hatred for someone, but he managed to sprout these feelings in my mind in less than a day. He disrespected me, humiliated me, injured me, and condescended me. He wasn't even the one that broke anything, and yet, he was so much worse than the leafeon. While the leafeon was the one who caused the pain I was feeling in my midsection right now, she didn't disrespect me nearly as much, and I found the lack of respect far worse than giving me my first broken bones. I was able to ignore pain if I tried hard enough, but I couldn't get that umbreon out of my head. _He's worse than the glaceon._

I always had that glaceon pinned, she was always fearful, she never dared to say a word of disrespect to me, never taking any action against me. She was afraid, always was, and I thought she always would be. I saw her again, and I felt gleeful, ready to resume my favorite pastime that I hadn't participated in for the past month. I had no idea where she went for a month, nor did I care, but I was ready to see her cower in fear once more. Much to my dismay, the umbreon was standing next to her, and she didn't have a fearful expression for more than a few seconds. After that time passed, she just stared at me indifferently, not holding the same kind of death glare the umbreon was, but just staring at me.

Needless to say, I was annoyed. Not only at the umbreon being present, but at the lack of fear displayed by the glaceon. My hatred for her began to glow alongside the umbreon, and my body moved on its own. I found my fist colliding with the face of the umbreon with all of the strength I could muster within my body. Yet… just like before, he just stood there without a reaction. Not only that, but the glaceon looked amused at the situation, which mocked me further. The first time I encountered him, I denied the thought in my mind again and again, refusing to believe that I couldn't hurt him. I couldn't handle the existence of someone who would mock me like he did, and then back it up. Nothing would make me accept it, nothing other than the brutal fight I watched take place right in front of me.

I had never seen pokemon move like that before, the leafeon in particular. To move with such speed, strength and precision, the umbreon and Naru didn't stand a chance, or so I thought. They lasted long against her, despite the two of them taking a massive beating, they both kept on pushing. They didn't win the battle, that leafeon was just beyond comprehension, but watching them move like that still angered me, because it proved just what I was trying so hard to deny. It proved that the umbreon was on another level, and not just him, but the small girl I used to torment on a daily basis, she could knock my lights out in an instant if she wanted to. The realization that I was in nothing but total baseless denial put me in a blank state of mind.

I was walking down a small street in Myriad alone, not wanting to interact with anyone. I even left my acquaintances behind, which I don't do very often, considering how much we've helped each other out in the past. We all had the same interests, and the same tendencies when we were roaming the streets of our home town. It's been awhile since I separated myself from the group, but I wasn't pleased with them right now. After the battle between the leafeon and the two other eeveelutions I hated took place, all four of them went over to the umbreon and Naru's collapsed bodies, and patched up whatever wounds they had, and even moved them to a safer place. Why they wanted to help either of them was beyond me, as I thought we all reached a consensus of hatred towards the two, but apparently not. Something about watching that battle inspired them or something, and they felt the need to help. The dragonair of our group spat at me for not helping, despite the fact that the umbreon saved my life, but I could care less. I just left them to do whatever they wanted, while I gave myself time to recollect the events that had just passed.

It was now the night of the next day, and when my group went to check on where they left the two eeveelutions, they were both gone. I had hoped that they ended up being taken overnight by some random pokemon roaming the streets, but for some reason I seriously doubted that. Fate wasn't that kind. They probably healed enough to start moving again and then went to wherever they needed to go, which I had no problem with. I never wanted to see their faces again unless I was beating them to a bloody pulp. I still didn't want to go back to my group, our anger towards each other was still mutual, and we only grew more separate from my outburst of wanting the umbreon and Naru to have been kidnapped when we figured out they were both gone.

I felt the center of my body ache every time I took a step, regardless of the healing that my acquaintances gave me right after I received my injury. This wasn't the kind of pain that would be gone in a day, and it was annoying me. I wasn't used to this kind of struggle, so I had no idea how long the pain would last. I probably shouldn't have come out to go for a walk so soon, but I honestly didn't care enough. I needed space to think, and since Myriad's streets were almost always completely empty at night, walking around was the best way to obtain the silence that I yearned for. I saw a shadow of another pokemon in the distance, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary, was when said shadow began to dash towards me at an impressive speed. Once the shape quickly arrived next to me, I realized who it was, which made me backpedal back down the road I had just came from.

I began to back up quickly, which caused me to trip and fall down backwards, harshly landing on my back. I let out a small shriek, feeling my cracked bones scream in pain once I made contact with the stone ground. The shadow that was rushing at me earlier just stood over me with a disappointed stare, almost as if she was expecting something from me, but I didn't deliver. The leafeon's stare soon turned into a devious-looking grin, and she began to laugh, presumably at me for falling down like I did. I was about to retort in some way, but I was distracted by the edges of the sharp-looking leaves all around the leafeon's body. The upper parts of them were dyed a deep purple, and her eyelids were hanging low, but not quite so they were closed. This only distracted me for a second though, I didn't know what to do in this situation. After all, this leafeon already would have killed me once if it wasn't for a pokemon I didn't want to think about, so what was holding her back from finishing me right here? Before I could try to bolt away out of fear, she calmed her laughing down.

"Alrighty… you looked hilarious a second ago, so I couldn't help but laugh at you!" She then let out more chuckles, but with great effort, didn't burst out laughing again. "Now, don't know if you caught my name earlier, so I'm Grace! I doubt you forgot who I am, after all, I sort of almost disintegrated you from existence." She began chuckling again, which made me shiver. _What is wrong with this pokemon?_

"Anywhooo, I'm not here to kill you, I've already had my fill for today, and you can only kill so many pokemon in one day without getting sick of it. I even spared a few souls. Well, after injuring them beyond repair, they're probably better off dead. Honestly, the screams of different species of pokemon are quite interesting when you listen to so many back to back, even though pokemon of the same species have different voices, there is always a distinct tone in their scream that I recognize. I absolutely love it! It adds another level to the agony I can feel oozing off of them!" Grace licked the edges of her mouth and closed her eyes with a pleasurable expression. My body began to involuntarily shake after her rambling.

"W-Why are you talking to me?" I managed to get out. I never got scared by anyone, and here I was, stuttering in front someone who may or may not excite herself through others' pain.

"Oh! Right!" Her eyes shot open and she looked at me again, putting on another horrifying grin. "I noticed that you're not too fond of Blacky back there. I thought that you were just another cocky pokemon picking fights with someone you know you can't beat without reason, but you definitely had some negative thoughts directed at him, I can notice that sort of thing. It's a type of look that I've gotten a few… a lot of times in the past. I don't know why, but whenever I manage to take a pokemon and bring them back to the Void, they always give me that look. I mean, they think I'm a psycho or something, can you believe that!?" _I would believe it…_

"W-What is the V-Void?" Grace's angry expression changed back to that of her devious smile.

"You don't know? Well, I guess that's kind of to be expected. Fun fact, I didn't know what the Void was even while I was working in it for a while!" Grace laughed herself to tears before wiping them away with a forepaw right after. "We're a group that likes doing things, usually bad things by the general public's opinion. Not that I care about the public, they're just a bunch of civils who can barely defend themselves. You know the last time I had a good fight outside of the Void until yesterday? It's been waaaaay too long, it was nice to feel pain outside of my organization again." _It felt nice to feel pain..?_ "The others in the Void tend to hold back so I don't get injured. If I get injured, then my work will slow down, then I'll get yelled at, and then I need to be punished, but then they figure out that a Void member injured me, and then they get punished, blah, blah. I don't really care much about the rules, I just like doing my own thing."

"W-Wait." Grace looked at me curiously. "W-Why are you telling me all of this?" She put on a thinking expression for a few seconds and then her face excitedly lit up.

"Oh yeah! I guess I just rambled for a bit. Well, the Void likes to make these drug things out of a lot of random ingredients that I'm not allowed to see because apparently I'll blow up part of the Void. We've made some progress with these things. Our overall goal was… Um… I think to just make one that can increase someone's physical and type-based abilities without any drawbacks. At the moment, we've killed four-hundred pokemon through testing these drugs." I shuddered. "But, that was just the beginning! We've made a lot of progress! Now, our test subjects consistently survive, but they become mindless shells after injected. It's weird, they become stronger, but then they can't move, so it doesn't matter. I remember once when I was in the room when they were testing one of the drugs, but I had to be escorted out. Apparently, standing right next to our subject and staring at them intently wasn't allowed, so with the power of charismatic words, and about fifteen feet of rope, I was escorted out." Grace looked annoyed at the memory she brought up.

"Back to the point, progress. Recently, we used a new concoction on a small vulpix that we took off of… off of… a boat I think. This one was meant to erase someone's memories, but had some… interesting possible side-effects, so we wanted to monitor said vulpix until we knew exactly what this new drug could do. Sounds like a simple plan, right? Well, let me tell you why it's a good idea to close doors." Grace took in a large breath and sighed. "Some of the Void could be rather incapable. I mean, he had one job, ONE JOB! He just had to watch a small child and prevent her from escaping, but nooooo, that's too much, and due to the damn door being left open, the vulpix ended up escaping." _She must not be fond of whoever let that happen._ "Anyway, this is relevant because it turns out that vulpix is alive and well, and we were going to take her back, but thanks to Blacky, she managed to slip away from us again. We still don't know if that vulpix will have side-effects or not, and it would be nice to know, but other pokemon won't stop getting in the way of that." Grace said with an annoyed tone.

"Alright, this relates to what I wanted to pull you aside for. Question; you hate Blacky, don't you?" I assumed that 'Blacky' was that umbreon. I thought back to the events that transpired yesterday, and created a fist. I thought back to the day before that, the first time I ran into him, and my grip tightened.

"With a burning passion." I told Grace, who put her devious smile back on.

"Good. I had nothing against the guy before yesterday, and nothing against him while we were fighting, it was just the last move he pulled, turning my own poison against me… that wasn't cool! I've never felt so useless before! I could barely move until a few hours ago, and even now, I feel unsteady, so I hate Blacky too!" She yelled angrily. "Now, for my offer, we've finally perfected a drug that will greatly enhance all of your physical attributes with no drawbacks whatsoever. We recently tested it on a mawile that we captured. He was on the brink of death, and the drug we gave him not only saved his life, but also greatly improved his strength. With this tested, we finally finalized a way for the Void to eat away at the Nest! How would you like to be our next candidate for this drug?" Grace put on and excited smile and leaned over me, right in front of my face. "Come on! The Void could always use more members, and you'd be able to get your revenge! So do you accept? Do you?" She seemed way more excited than she should have been over a random recruit, her tail was quickly swaying back and forth and she looked as if she was about to jump out of her skin.

I took a second to think about the offer presented before me. I didn't know what the Nest was, and I had barely any knowledge of the Void, or what might happen to me if I accept. Logically, I shouldn't have any reason to accept this offer. Plus, this leafeon gave me my first broken bones, along with nearly killing me. Trusting her didn't seem logical, but one sentence had me nearly hooked on the decision. _You'd be able to get your revenge…_

I hated that umbreon. I hated him with a burning passion. I wanted to see him in pain, to see him suffer, along with anyone he holds close to him. I obtained all of these thoughts over the span of two days, and I didn't bother resisting them. Not to mention, he seemed to be friends with Naru, or at least acquaintances. Going after him could lead me to her as well, so I had another reason to accept. These reasons outweighed whatever doubt I still had in my mind very quickly.

"I accept." I told Grace. Her smile grew as she stared down at me.

"All right!" She shouted excitedly. "Now that you've accepted, I can take you to the Void, but, ummm… how do I explain this? We have certain secrets that need to be kept secret, so I'm going to have to do this." Grace placed one of her forepaws on my head, and I felt a small prick. "Hopefully this won't immobilize you like it did to me and Blacky, but it'll knock you out for a bit. Nighty night!"

I couldn't react to what Grace was saying to me, I barely heard her in the first place. I just felt a calm feeling flood over my body, and I closed my eyes, accepting it.

* * *

 **Kuro**

It's been a few hours since I started to consistently stand again, and my movements were beginning to feel fluent. Cole and Aria were both giving me space to move around. The two of them understood why I couldn't walk in a straight line after I explained the encounter Naru and I had the previous day, so they stood by the entrance of the alleyway, making sure no strange pokemon tried to approach.

Naru was still lying down on the ground, asleep. I looked over to her every now and then to make sure she was doing okay, and she hadn't even changed her position since she'd woken up for the first time. I hadn't needed to change the bandage on her head again, so her main wound seemed to be healing, which was good. It didn't say anything for the head trauma she took from Grace, but at least I had one good thing to latch onto. I had no idea what her condition was like outside of the wound on her head, so I tried to focus on any positive I could find in order to soothe my thoughts, and not let them travel in the wrong direction. I had to be optimistic here, pessimism would only hold everyone back. _Naru will be okay, I know she will._ I repeated to myself mentally.

Thinking about injuries wasn't going to do me any good, I would just constantly worry, which isn't what we needed right now. It was a bit hard to resist thinking about the glaceon that was sleeping close to me, but I knew that sitting here, locked in my thoughts, was not going to accomplish anything. I noticed that I got hung up on one subject intently pretty often, which was a trait that wasn't very welcome in my mind. It's not like I was ever great at balancing multiple tasks, but focusing on one thing and one thing only wasn't the solution, it was just another hinderance. I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. _What exactly do I need to do in order to help with the situation?_

"Silent Umbreon! We forgot to tell you something!" Aria flew over and landed right in front of me, Cole landing next to her, nearly taking up all of the space between the two walls of the alleyway we were in. "We weren't actually the only ones who came here, there was a third pokemon with us who finished up the last thing you two had to do here." I tilted my head. _Why did that get organized?_ I decided to just assume the leaders at the Nest thought Naru and I were in some kind of danger, so more than just Cole and Aria were sent. Well, one more pokemon at least.

"That's probably for the best, considering her condition." I glanced becak at Naru for a second, but then shook my head. _I said I'd stop getting hung up on it…_ "Do you know what they found there?"

"She walked into a rather... macabre sight." Cole said while looking down. "Inside of the structure the two of you were meant to investigate," He hesitated for a moment. "The place looked like a bloody warzone."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was curious, despite the fact that I might not like what I was about to hear.

"It was massacred, about twenty-five pokemon were maimed beyond recognition." Cole shuddered and shook his head. "More than half of them were children, but they were mutilated all the same. According to the Raven that investigated, there was also one part of the wall that had been nearly coated in blood completely, as well as a trail that led up to it. I don't know what happened there, but it clearly wasn't pretty."

I tried to picture what Cole had just described to me in my head, and he was right, it wasn't pretty. I was suddenly glad that Naru and I weren't the ones to have walked in on that, but subsequently felt bad for the Raven who ended up being the unlucky soul to traverse into that building. Whoever she was, she ended up being presented with that image, which couldn't have been a good experience. Question after question flowed into my head revolving this event. _Who would do that in the first place? Stupid question. Probably someone from the Void, but was it Grace, before she came to Naru and I? Or was there more than one Void member right beside us during our time at Myriad? And who were the ones that ended up being killed?_

I looked down at the ground, unsure how to process this information, or if I should even think about the newfound questions in my head. In the past, over thinking questions I had about one topic or another did nothing but give me a lasting headache for the rest of the day. But, for some reason, this felt different. I felt like one of the questions I just asked myself could be answered from my thoughts alone, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It was strange, like I knew something for a fact but still couldn't bring the point up in my mind. _Why do I even feel like this in the first place? I know next to nothing about this massacre, so why do I feel like I have information? Why do I feel like I have answers?_

I mentally backtracked and thought about my main questions again. Could Grace have been the one to do this? I couldn't be completely sure, but I sort of doubted it. By the way she interacted with Naru and I, it seemed like she prioritized the battle itself and capturing us rather than outright killing us. If that's the case, then why would she straight-up massacre this place without taking them all back to the Void? It didn't make sense to me. The possibility that there was another Void member in Myriad somewhere actually seemed probable. It wouldn't be too hard to hide your identity as a Void member if you pleased, the only thing keeping them from being completely shrouded in mist was the odd sense of pride they seem to feel when it comes to the organization they work for. If this pride was thrown away by a Void member, it wouldn't be too farfetched for another Void member to be hiding out somewhere. However, like with my previous question, I couldn't be positive.

The last question I had, who ended up being killed? Who were the many victims of this attack? I felt like, somewhere in my mind, I knew possible candidates. _The question is, who exactly? If I feel so strongly that I know who might have been killed, then why can't I pinpoint it? Why can't I think of it?_ I closed my eyes and entered my thoughts, remembering anything new I may have learned since Naru and I arrived in Myriad. There was really only one place where I learned something new, but I didn't think it was relevant. Was that really it though? Did I believe it wasn't relevant? Or did I not want it to be relevant? Was there a thought I had been purposely avoiding because I didn't want it to be the truth that badly?

" _Not too long ago, we got attacked by a really weird pokemon, they reminded me a lot of the ones that were on the ship. We were split up again, me and the rest of the pokemon here were with our grandfather, but he brought us to this place because he said he was afraid of not being able to protect us if we get attacked again. After that, he left to try and find the other pokemon that we were with."_

I grit my teeth at my memories.

" _But I know everyone else is safe, and I know that I'll meet up with all of them again, even if I have to make it happen myself!"_

 _That can't be it… There's no way…_

Of course I didn't want to acknowledge it as a possibility. It laid in the furthest reaches of my mind, existing, but not prevalent. I didn't let the thought get far in my mind, I subconsciously rejected it. A group of innocent pokemon, all very young, along with their caretakers.

" _There's no way that I can give up, that's what I took from you after you helped everyone at the old camp."_

" _I want to be able to help too, so I can't give up on them!"_

I felt my emotions start to surface on my face. A group of kids, having done nothing wrong, could they really be the ones that were killed? That wasn't even the entire body count, if there was somewhere around twenty-five bodies, then they weren't the only ones who had their lives taken. Of course, nothing was set in stone yet, but considering the situation of all of the kids who resided in that camp a month ago, it was way too likely for me to be comfortable with. They may have gotten separated, but if one group made it here, than the other couldn't have been too far away. It was all too likely that they also found their way here, but ended up being intercepted before they made it to the town. Intercepted by a monster. I may have not been one-hundred percent sure of my theory, but I treated it as if it was true. _Please… Please let me be wrong…_

My focus on the thoughts rushing through my head was interrupted when I realized the the rings around my two front legs were letting out a very faint, pulsing light. By assuming that my theory was right, I spiked my emotions in a rather negative way, enough for me to lose a hold on controlling the rings all over my body. Not to mention, I was standing in front of two of my teammates, who haven't seen them glow before, or even know about their connotations with my emotions. A quick glance upwards revealed that the two of them didn't really know what was happening to me, and were unaware that it was caused by emotional distress. Showing myself like this in front of someone other than Naru gave me a great feeling of discomfort, or maybe embarrassment. I couldn't tell, but either way, I told myself mentally that I could suck it up for now.

I took a deep breath and calmed my mind down of any semblance of my train of thought, turning it into an empty space. I blinked away any tears that were threatening to leave my eyelids and shook my head.

"Hey, are you okay..?" Aria asked me without her usual tone. It was weird to hear her talk at normal volume.

"I'm fine, just picturing what happened in that place." I half-lied. I was indeed just picturing the event, but that's not what triggered my distress. I didn't like lying to others, but I figured it was better than throwing my theory at them right here. "If it's okay for me to ask, who came here with you two?"

"Oh! She's a pidgeot who didn't talk too much, or even give us her name, but apparently, she's been a Raven for years, and is training to become a Nest leader right now. I'm pretty sure she already left after giving us the info about that task." Aria paused for a second, seemingly thinking about something. "You can definitely tell she's a veteran, I mean, she had almost no reaction to walking in on that massacre, it was almost like she wasn't bothered by it at all." _At least the pokemon taking our place wasn't scarred by the experience._

"I see. If I ever see her in the Nest I'll have to give my thanks." I looked back at the ground for a few seconds, contemplating a request for Cole and Aria. I almost backed out of asking, but my mouth moved before I can stop myself. "Do you know if you can take me to that massacred building before we leave?" Cole and Aria both stared at me with a dumbfounded gaze.

"W-What? Why would you want to go there?" Cole asked me.

"There's something I need to confirm about the victims. It may end up being important, especially to someone who lives in this town." I firmly said. I wanted more than anything for me to be wrong, but if I end up being correct in my assumptions, than I need to let Cyan know about it. Telling Shine directly wasn't something I had the will to do right now. Maybe if I hadn't ever gone to the orphanage and heard him preach about wanting to see them again, I'd be able to tell him, but that's not the case. I wouldn't be able to get the sentence out. _Or am I just too scared to see his reaction?_

"I can take you, but are you really sure you want to go? You just paused at the thought of the place, do you really think you'd be able to see it with your own eyes?" Aria asked me with a similar tone to the one she used earlier. _Lying really gets you nowhere…_

"I'm sure. It's important." Aria nodded her head.

"If you say so, then I'll take you. However, we may want to leave soon then, I'm supposed to bring you two back to the Nest after this, and it would probably be better to leave sooner rather than later." I nodded in response and turned around. I walked over to Naru, who was still sleeping lightly in the same position as before. She looked peaceful resting there, and I knew that if I woke her up, I'd be bringing her back to the pain in her head, but I sadly didn't have a choice. I took one of my forepaws and nudged Naru's shoulder a few times, making her twitch a little bit. I repeated my actions a few more times, and then Naru's eyes slowly opened.

"Naru, we have to get going now, how are you feeling?" I asked her quietly. I had no idea what her tolerance for noise was when her head felt like it was smashed with a boulder, so I didn't want to be loud. She lifted her head off of her bag and turned onto the side of her body in order to push off of the ground.

"Ugh… It still hurts, but definitely not as bad as when I first woke up." Naru fully stood up, and then took a step forward, before flinching and grunting in pain. "Never mind… definitely just as bad…" Now I really felt bad for making her move, but it needed to be done regardless.

"Cole and Aria are both here now, and our last task to complete here has been taken care of, so after making a small pit stop, it looks like we'll be going back to the Nest." Naru glanced passed me and looked at Cole and Aria before slowly raising a forepaw and waving it up and down. The two of them both waved back with one of their wings. Once Naru put her paws on the ground again, she flinched, letting out another pained groan. Listening to the sounds coming from Naru when she was in this state put me in dismay. It seemed like the best option was to get her back home as soon as possible, so I figured it was a good idea to split off for now. I turned around back to Cole and Aria.

"Do both of you know how to get back to the Nest easily?" I received a nod from the two of them, much to my relief. "Then, do you mind if one of you takes Naru back to the Nest while the other stays here with me to further check out that building?" Cole and Aria seemed to look at each other for a second and began to quietly converse. I felt a tap on my back from Naru, and I turned around to look at her.

"What are you talking about? Didn't you say that our tasks here were already finished?" Naru stumbled on her paws a bit after finishing her sentence, but managed to balance herself before falling down.

"I'll tell you about it when the two of us are both back at the Nest, and after you rest more. The best thing for you to do now is go back and recover." Considering that she was having a hard time standing upright, I didn't want to drag her around Myriad more when she could go back and rest.

"But, are you sure? I mean, what if something happens while you're there?" I guess it was true that some unexpected events have taken place in the past, the previous day being no exception, but that didn't change my opinion. Even if I acknowledged the possibility that there may be another Void member lurking around here somewhere, I needed to investigate. I want to figure out that I'm wrong, and if it happens that I'm not, then Cyan needs to know. Staying here to figure this out was worth the risk.

"Like I said, this is important. I'll fill you in on all of the details once I get back, but I'd feel way better if I knew you were resting off your injuries instead of me taking you there. It's not like I'll be alone either, if we need to retreat, then we will, simple as that. Nothing bad is going to happen." [Yeah sure. That's what they all say.] I assured her the best that I could, leaving out another reason I didn't want her to come to this place. After all, it wasn't a pleasant sight.

"Well… I trust you. Plus, even if something does happen, I guess I'd be useless in a fight right now anyway, so I'll go back and rest while you do what you need to." Naru smiled. "Just… don't overdo it. You may not be in as bad of a condition as I am, but you're not exactly moving at full throttle."

"Got it. I'll make sure to stay safe." I nodded with a smile. I turned my head around to see Cole and Aria glide over to the two of us. Both of them touched down right in front of us.

"Alright, I'll take Naru back to the Nest, and Cole is going to stay here with Silent Umbreon to escort him after he's done here. Are you guys okay with this?" Aria asked us, to which we both nodded in affirmation. "Sounds good! I'll fly slow to minimize your pain, Naru."

" I appreciate it…" Naru said with another groan. She then walked over to Aria and climbed up onto her back just as we did when we flew here in the first place. Aria began to lightly, but quickly moved her wings to raise off of the ground again. Naru almost instantly put her head down onto Aria's back, probably trying to fall asleep again. I would have done the same thing if I was dealing with that kind of pain.

"Well, I'll see you two when you get back, bye!" Aria flew high up into the sky, and then began flying over Myriad at a steady pace, although she wasn't going nearly as fast as she flew when taking us here. I just looked up at them for bit until the two of them were out of sight, disappearing into the blue sky.

"So, do you want to leave now? I can show you where the building is." Cole asked from in front of me.

"Yes, I think that would be best. I… really just want to get this over with." I confessed. I let out a small sigh involuntarily.

"What exactly has you interested in checking out this place? I mean, you know what you're going to find, and you know it's not going to be pretty."

"Something more… personal. Like I said before, I just need to confirm something, and I can't do that if I don't see the corpses themselves with my own eyes." I hated thinking about what I was about to see, but it was going to happen either way, so it didn't make much of a difference.

"If you say so. I won't stop you if you really want to investigate, but just be prepared to look at some gruesome things." I nodded to Cole, and he flew a small distance into the air. "I can lead you there, it's only a few miles down the road adjacent to this one, so it won't be too long." Cole began to fly over the crowds of pokemon, and I followed him at ground level.

It was a little bit difficult to weave around the pokemon crowding the streets, but I managed. My body was still sore from the previous day, but my numbness was slowly but surely leaving me. Most of it was gone at this point, and it was hardly affecting my movement anymore. Thinking about it, that poison really did a number on me, despite my usual resistance to poison. After ingesting a variety of poisonous plants and berries due to my young ignorance, the effects of normal poisonous compounds began to affect me less and less as time went on. I've even been injected with toxins that feral pokemon sometimes carry, and gained a decent resistance to that as well.

Whatever Grace hit me with, it was clearly artificial, considering her species. My dad was a leafeon after all, so I knew that they didn't possess natural poison inside of their bodies. More than it being artificial, the poison was pretty potent, potent enough to practically paralyze me, despite my resistance. If the Void was able to embed this kind of ability into their members, then this just added onto the already threatening nature of the Void. They had pokemon that could beat me in their sleep, and also had the ability to artificially make them even more dangerous. Although, I suppose it sort of saved us in the long run. If I wasn't able to poison Grace via my ability, then I really don't know how yesterday would have ended. Probably a lot less pleasant, and involving a lot more pain for both Naru and I. _Hopefully that poison did just as much to her as it did to me._

After about a half-hour of following Cole, we had left Myriad, and were passing the outskirts that Naru and I explored yesterday. All of the plants were still here, and the grass looked as if it had been freshly cut overnight, which interested me. The residents of Myriad made sure their town was well-kept, even a mile or two away from the town. Whoever works like that must have some dedication.

Another ten minutes passed, and I made out a large, barn-like structure in the distance. It had a wooden exterior, and it looked like age was beginning to take its toll on its stability. I had a large feeling of dread pass through me as soon as I closed in on the building. I knew exactly why, but I still hated the feeling, even know I was about to willingly walk into it. Cole landed a small distance away from the structure and I walked over to him.

"Well, here it is. The place even looks dreadful from the outside." Cole said to me. I just stared at the nearly-collapsed structure, feeling more tense as time passed. "I'll wait for you out here. I think I'll sit this out, don't really have the strongest stomach…" Cole chuckled lightly, and I gave a small smile which was just a little bit forced.

"Alright… see you soon." I walked away from Cole and stood in front of the wooden barn. Without even entering the building, an absolutely putrid smell immediately invaded my nostrils, making me gag. The smell included a very large amount of blood, which I was more or less used to at this point, but what really got to me was what I assumed to be decomposition. I had never really smelled death like this since my parents were killed, and even then, two and twenty-five are very different numbers. I shook my head harshly, trying not to focus on the scent of the place. I prepared myself mentally for a few seconds, and then took my first step through the rectangular entrance to the structure.

Visually, I would never be scarred more than I was on my eighth birthday, but what I layed my eyes on as soon as I walked into this place evoked the same feeling of horror that I had that day, coming closer than anything else since then to replicating my disturbance and fear.

I immediately saw a pokemon right by the front door, their face slashed repeatedly to the point that I didn't see any features. No eyes, no nose, not even their mouth. The lower parts of their body looked mostly decomposed, so I couldn't decipher the species. After this first sight, I nearly passed out on the ground, and I felt so tempted to just turn around and walk out of this place. I had seen one body, and I was already wavering. Regardless, I pushed on into the deeper parts of the structure, only to be horrified again to a higher degree.

The next room of this place looked like the only other one, just a large open space made up of wood. Inside of this open area, I found a pile in the middle of the room. A giant pile of dead pokemon. I gagged again at the strong smell, and nearly vomited, bringing one of my forepaws up to my mouth to prevent myself from doing so. The aspect of a giant pile of dead bodies was enough to be horrifying, but what made it worse was their condition. All of them were completely maimed. I couldn't decipher any of their species from the position I was standing in. All of them had their faces mutilated, and many other piercings all over them. Some were even missing limbs, and those limbs were scattered across the floor around the pile of death. These bodies didn't look as bad as the first one though, so I should be able to decipher what kind of pokemon they belong to, I just needed to get closer. _Calm down… you just need to verify their species, then you can leave this awful place._

I slowly but surely took a few steps closer to the pile of corpses, my muscles decreasing in speed with every step. My body began to uncomfortably shake, but I pushed towards the pile. Once I was about a foot away, I was able to further analyze the bodies in order to place their species. The first one I looked at didn't seem to have much damage other than a single piercing in their stomach, other than the fact that they had been decapitated. I recognized the body as a prinplup, and then started to walk around the pile, observing all of the corpses as closely as I could without making myself sick. I still gagged every now and then, but I managed to keep myself from going any further than that. Once I made my way around about half of the pile, I couldn't recognize a single pokemon species other than the first one. Although, most of them looked like adults, and I was told that a bunch of children were also killed. Right as I was hoping that the information was just a fluke, I laid my eyes on the other half of the pile.

Most of the pokemon on this side had recognizable species, meaning they weren't mutilated as badly as a lot of the other pokemon who died here. I wanted to just assume that whoever did this inflicted injuries at random, but a certain 'what-if' question popped in my head, and it was a distressing one. _What if these ones didn't put up as much of a fight..?_

I took another step closer, looking at the bodies in front of me. Examining more closely, I realized that they were indeed children. I grit my teeth through the realization, but that wasn't the only thing I found out from looking at these bodies. I was able to recognize four pokemon's species, four pokemon that nearly made me break down in the middle of this place. Three children, and one adult.

A darumaka.

A turtwig.

A pidgey.

A wigglytuff.

All four of these… all four of them were matched with species from pokemon at the camp. Three of them being the children that resided there, and one of them being a caretaker for the kids. There was no way this was a coincidence. I was looking at the second group of children from the camp, and their caretakers. I was staring at their grave.

I nearly lost control of myself and screamed, but I managed to hold back. I still backed up very quickly and started to take in quick, heavy breaths, no longer caring about the smell of the bodies. I needed to compose myself, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to stay calm for much longer. I stood in place, shaking like a leaf, not moving. I wanted to be wrong, I wanted to be wrong so badly, but it looked like my original theory was correct. I was staring at the bodies of pokemon I once protected, pokemon that did nothing wrong, pokemon who were friends with Shine.

It took everything I had within me to not have a mental breakdown. I turned my head away, refusing to look at the bodies any more. I looked at the ground instead, and I would keep looking at the ground until I found the will to move again. I wanted to focus on composure, but my eyes found a trail of blood that led to the wall behind me. Nervous, but intrigued, I turned my body around without looking up, not wanting to even glance at the pile of bodies again. Right in front of me was a large section of the wooden wall, nearly covered completely in blood. I was surprised at myself for not noticing it when I first walked in, but I suppose my attention was focused elsewhere. The blood looked as if it had been spread there intentionally, not off of killing one of the pokemon that was here at the time. It almost looked like it was trying to cover something up.

After further investigation, I realized that there was a letter, written in blood, on the far left of the wall, just beside the massive stain in the center. It was a simple 'N' on the wall. There was another odd shape next to it, looking a bit like another letter, but I couldn't decipher it. This told me that not every pokemon here died instantly. A few of them may have struggled, or even fought back, but ultimately couldn't stop whoever did this. _Regardless, they really didn't give up until the very end…_

I thought about all of the pokemon who died here, just living their lives like they were supposed to, but then massacred by a monster. I dug my claws into the floor out of anger. I couldn't grasp how someone could do something like this. It was disgusting, despicable, and it infuriated me to no end. Just being here upset me, and the longer I stayed, the more my emotions stood out to me. My rings began to glow intensely, and I don't know what caused it. My fear, my disturbance, my sadness, my anger. It could have been any of these, or a combination, but it didn't really matter.

In the past, I've felt plenty of anger towards the Void, but I never really had any sort of bloodlust towards them. I've never had any bloodlust, period. The ideology my parents passed onto me was a peaceful one, and one that made me cherish any sort of life. To me, killing was the worst thing you could do to a pokemon. You are single handedly taking away someone's existence, leaving nothing but memories behind. Because of my ideology, I never even thought about taking someone else's life, it seemed like the worst thing I could possibly do.

The feelings I had while standing in this barn… they were the closest thing I felt to bloodlust. I was angry, more so than I had been in a long time. I felt like… I wanted to hurt whoever did this, I wanted to make sure they payed for what they did here. Was this bloodlust? Feeling like someone needed to be hurt because of their actions?

I shook my head heavily, wanting to get these thoughts out of my head as soon as possible. I took one last glance at the pile of bodies in the center of the room, and with a blank expression, left the barn.

* * *

Hello Readers!

I don't really have anything to say in this author's note, so… I hope all of you are well!

Thank everyone who had sent me a review, a PM, or other miscellaneous things that make me a happy person, and thank you to my beta reader cleaning up my mistakes! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	23. Solidifying Bonds

**Naru**

Aria was slowly gliding through the air with me on her back. I couldn't really take in the scenery we happened to be flying over, because my head was face down. I still had the worst headache I've ever had, and while it was slowly, very slowly getting better, it was still nearly unbearable. I had clearly been patched up a bit since I received these injuries, so I wasn't really in any real danger anymore, which was one positive for a list of negatives. But, you have to take what you can get, right?

I was supremely grateful for the fact that Aria and Cole showed up in Myriad to help Kuro and I. Them being there calmed me down, helping the stress I had regarding neither Kuro or myself being able to properly fight after yesterday. For all we know, Grace wasn't the only Void member in Myriad, and if we ended up being attacked while in that kind of condition, bad things would happen. Very bad things. It did feel a bit strange to be heading back only two days after we left though, even know we were supposed to be at Myriad for a week. I guess it didn't really matter since we accomplished everything we needed to in those two days. Although, it still felt a bit strange.

A lot happened in our short time back at Myriad, a lot more than I expected to happen. For one, we learned where some of the kids we helped a month ago at that orphanage camp were residing. I was happy that they found a place to go, but worried about the rest of them all the same. I told myself that they would be okay and decided to reflect a bit more.

I got to see Kuro actually let out his emotions for once, which turned out almost exactly as I expected it to. He never showed any type of negative emotions to anyone. At least, never intentionally. He always tried his best to hold back, which began to wear him down mentally. I think that exploring his old home again, as well as visiting his parents' grave after not doing so for longer than usual is what set him off. He had so much buildup that he couldn't handle the environment of his old home without his mind overflowing. It made me happy that I was with him when he finally stopped holding back, even if it was only for that hour, I was glad that I could help him with his distress. It was pretty clear that he didn't know how to handle his emotions too well, probably due to his lack of communication with anyone for such an extended period of time. I may have stayed reserved and didn't really form any relationships while I was withdrawing, but I still talked to pokemon around the town occasionally, hoping that they wouldn't try and hurt me in response. I may have been fearful, but I still communicated, something that Kuro never did. Plus, the fact that he most likely didn't even see many other pokemon that weren't feral meant that he couldn't observe others' emotions, so he had no idea how to handle his own. At least, this was what I thought. The point was, I was happy that I could help him.

Of course, then we made it back to Myriad, and ended up being confronted by my old 'friends.' It seemed like they still had the same thoughts of hatred towards me, which initially scared me, but after telling myself that I've changed, as well as seeing Kuro embarrass the one that did most of the bullying, my fear soon dissipated. The only thing that still confused me was how exactly Kuro knew who they were before they said anything. He had clearly had some kind of confrontation with them in the past, although I had no idea as to what kind, but they had definitely met before. Not only had they met, but they also didn't get along, not like I wanted them to in the first place, but I found it strange. Kuro said he'd tell me later, so I'll just ask him when he gets back to the Nest along with me.

Finally, we were confronted by a Void admin, claiming to be the fourth strongest in the Void, the leafeon, Grace. She terrified me even before she attacked us, but that terror multiplied as soon as she hit me the first time. It hurt much more than anything I had been hit with in the past, and she didn't even use a real move on me, she simply kicked me. That kick hurt more than any fire attack I've ever taken, and that thought terrified me. As for the rest of that fight, most of it was a blur to be honest. I know most of it was spent getting knocked around, and I know there was one point where Kuro shouted something and then landed a decent hit on her. For some reason, that was the part of the battle I remembered most clearly, but I couldn't even piece what Kuro said together in my mind, so I don't know why the rest of it came to me so easily. The last part that I really remember vividly is when I landed a solid hit to the side of her head, and then further hit her in the chest with an ice beam. It looked like it actually did some amount of damage, despite the sound Grace made in response to the attack sounding… interesting. Everything after that was vague, I know Kuro gave Grace a taste of her own medicine with his ability, and she retreated after that, but I think that's where the two of us fell.

 _Such an eventful two days, too bad only half were positive._ I wasn't sure why Kuro wanted to stay for a bit longer and have me leave with Aria first, but he said he'd explain it to me when he got back, so it looked like I was due for an information dump back in our room in the Nest. _Hopefully, I won't be feeling as awful as I do now when that time comes._

After flying for a bit longer, I noticed that there wasn't nearly as much wind pushing against my body. I wanted to lift my head to investigate, but I had to will myself to do so. Once encouraging myself mentally, I sluggishly lifted my head up, feeling the awful ache come back with it. I felt like I had a migraine that never went away, just a constant pain lingering in my head. The fact that it never went away bothered me way more than the pain itself, it might as well have been letting me know that it would be haunting me nonstop until I healed. I ended up getting myself past my personified pain, and looked down off of Aria's back. The two of us were now hovering directly above the Nest, its mainly violet coloring sticking out from the dark sky that surrounded us, and also worsening my headache a bit. _It's night already? How long have we been flying? Guess I dozed off from exhaustion again…_

"Well, here we are! I've been talking with someone with one of those gold… communicator things, someone who works in the medical fields here. As soon as we land, I'll make sure you get something to help with your pain." Aria told me, using a much quieter voice than I was used to, coming from her.

"I appreciate it... " I said before groaning a little bit. I felt the wind from movement clash with my body once more, only this time coming from below me rather than in front of me. It was a light wind, I'd have thought of it as comforting if I didn't have the worst headache of my life right now. Soon, the wind stopped lightly brushing my fur once more, as Aria's movement halted again, only this time we were on the ground, not hovering. I was about to begin to convince myself to get up, but I noticed two familiar pokemon approaching Aria and I. It was Kage and Vero walking over to us, one of them holding a small syringe in a paw, the other, looking like they got into a fight just as bad as Kuro and I.

Happy to see the familiar faces, I dropped myself off of Aria's back, landing rather unsteadily on the ground, and feeling a wave of soreness come over my entire body. _Bad idea…_ After stumbling around a little bit, I managed to stand still on all fours. Kage was covered in bandages similarly to me, which made a memory of a mental conversation Kuro and I had with Core play through my head again. I almost forgot about the whole thing that happened here while we were gone, how the Nest had a Void member break in somehow and almost cause some huge problems. I had the two pokemon in front of me to thank for making sure that didn't happen.

"Welcome back, Naru." Vero greeted. I was about to respond, but I opened my mouth only to release another pained sound, before tilting my head down slightly and shutting my eyes. "Right, before we talk about anything, we can do something about the pain you're feeling." I heard Vero approach me and then felt a prick on the side of my neck. I opened my eyes in response, and then widened them at the new feeling that entered my body soon after.

I felt the ache I had all over my body, including my head slowly disappear, getting better and better with each passing second. In place of the pain, I felt relief wash over my body. My tensed-up muscles loosened, and I let out the largest sigh of relief I ever had. I went from feeling the worse pain of my life to nothing in a few seconds, I had to walk in a small circle a few times and shake my head to make sure that this was real. It didn't seem possible, but I most definitely wasn't dreaming right now, my pain had been taken away from me entirely in the space of a minute.

"W-Wow…" I took in another breath, letting myself bid farewell to my previous pain. "What did you just give me? I feel like I never got injured in the first place!" I hopped on my paws a few times, solidifying the fact that I felt as good as I did.

"I had a similar reaction, it's amazing, isn't it?" Kage said. _He must have been given the same thing after he was hurt._ "In the Nest's medical field, it looks like we have two prodigies working together to develop medicine that completely eliminate all of one's pain in a matter of seconds. They've been working on this since we first arrived at the Nest, and I don't think I need to tell you how well it turned out."

"No kidding… I feel brand new!" I had the sudden urge to run now that I was free of pain, but my injuries were still present, so that probably wouldn't be a good idea. "Who made something like this?"

"Believe it or not, it was two of the recruits who joined at the same time as us!" Aria chimed in, and I turned to face her. "Scythe and Force, the two of them switched fields just like I did, only they went into medicine instead of transportation. They switched almost immediately after they joined, and have been working on this ever since! They must be the two smartest pokemon I know!" _If they really did develop something like this, then I agree._

"We have one for Kuro when he gets back too. Force told me about him wanting to stay behind for a little longer, so I'll give him one when he gets back here." Vero seemed to observe the bandages all over my body for a few seconds. "If he took anywhere near the amount of damage you did, then I think he'll appreciate it." I nodded.

"I don't think he's quite as beat up as I am, but I'm sure it'll help him a lot!" _He'll like the feeling of relief that comes from this._ I smiled to myself.

"Speaking of which, any idea why Kuro stayed back for a little bit longer?" Kage generally asked among the group.

"He told me that he'd explain when he got back here, so I have no idea yet." I responded.

"He needed to investigate something, but I don't really know what goes on through his head. He's putting himself through something, and I don't think it can just be brushed off." Aria sighed slightly, but I was intrigued, wanting her to continue. I still had no idea why Kuro stayed back, and I wanted to know really badly.

"What did he want to investigate?" I asked her.

"Well, I don't know why he went, but I can tell you what he wanted to look at." Aria took in a breath, ready to explain further. "You see, remember that last task you needed to do in Myriad? The one about the weird shelter somewhat close to Myriad's outskirts?" I nodded. "As it turns out, that place is a bloody mess. More than two dozen pokemon were massacred in that place, and they were ended in a rather gruesome fashion." I shuddered slightly at the thought of this place. _We could have walked into that without any idea of the contents…_

"Like I said, I have no idea why, but Kuro wanted to go there directly and look at the scene for himself. He had some sort of motive, you could tell by the way he talked, but I have no idea what. I mean, why would anyone want to see something like that? We don't even know who was killed, or who did it." Aria finished speaking and tilted her head to the side, wondering why Kuro would want to do such a thing. _What do you want to know, Kuro? Why would you make yourself look at something like that?_ I pondered his decisions for a little bit before coming up with a theory.

"Maybe he wanted to know who was killed?" Kage said, sounding unsure of himself. The other two pokemon in the group, as well as myself turned our heads to Kage. "I mean, if that many pokemon were killed in one spot, do you think he would have any desire to know who they were?" I thought about the idea that Kage had just proposed. It wasn't impossible by any means, but Kuro wasn't really the type of pokemon to do something like this purely because of curiosity. He had to have some sort of other motive if he wanted to figure out who was killed there, especially if it meant looking at a bunch of mangled bodies.

"Do you think he had an idea of who was killed there?" Vero asked. "If he had some sort of lead on knowing who was killed, then he could have gone to figure that out. I don't know exactly why he would want to, but does that seem possible?" Vero sounded just as unsure as Kage, and I wasn't far behind. Did it make sense? Yes. Did that confirm anything? Not at all.

"Wait! He did say he wanted to confirm something… could that be it? Could he have wanted to figure out who was killed?" Aria chimed, almost excited to be closer to figuring out Kuro's motives, despite the fact he was just going to tell us later anyway.

The reasoning behind everyone's thinking was sound, but, to my knowledge, Kuro didn't really have a way to predict who may have been killed. The only pokemon we really interacted with in Myriad were my old group of bullies, who I didn't think Kuro would have been too concerned about. He wouldn't want them to die or anything, but I don't think he would make it a point to find out if they were killed. I tried to think of anyone else that he may have suspected, and after a little bit of thinking, I remembered another group he interacted with. A small portion of the children that lived in the orphanage camp that we went to for our first mission. _Wait… does he think that the other part of that group were the victims..?_ I pondered a bit more, but then shook my head, releasing the thought from my brain. Honestly, I didn't want to think about that possibility, so I told myself I was wrong and that Kuro would give me the right reason when he came back. They were such a bright group of kids, thinking about them being dead so unjustly stirred up a lot of anxiety within me, so I told myself I was wrong. _That has to be wrong, right?_ [Oh boy, she's in for a surprise]

Our group of four pokemon stood in a silent circle for a few minutes, still thinking of why exactly Kuro decided to investigate a murder scene, but no more suggestions were brought up. My initial assumption kept on coming back to me and I dismissed it every time, continuously telling myself that it was impossible. Eventually, our group collectively sighed, before looking at each other, obviously at a complete loss.

"Well, we'll all know once he gets here and explains it, no use losing sleep over it now." Kage said, with everyone adding a nod, signaling a consensus.

"Sounds good. Now, I need to go sleep." Aria let out a large yawn. "I've been flying waaaay too much today, and I'm exhausted. Also, Naru, one more thing about that medicine. It took away your pain for now, but you're probably going to completely crash in a little bit, so try and stay near a bed." I nodded to Aria. I knew there had to be some kind of side-effect to this medicine, nothing was that perfect. After letting me know that I'd be collapsing in a little bit, Aria flew off, presumably to her own room. Kage and Vero bid their farewells to me after I let them know that I'd be fine to make it back to my room okay, and the two of them walked off to their own.

I began to walk down the twisting roads of the Nest, on my way back to Kuro and I's room, excited to see Shiro again. I knew she'd be back there, and I don't think anyone told her that Kuro and I were going to be back early, so hopefully she'll be happy to have company again. I felt bad needing to leave her so soon after saying that we'd look after her, but it had to be done, and it was less of a deal now than it was when we first left because we were coming back so much earlier than expected. I still felt bad about it, but I was going to half-remedy the situation soon, and Kuro was going to complete it when he came back.

I was happy to care for Shiro along with Kuro, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel strange. I had never really looked after someone before, even back when I lived with a younger brother, my parents were always there to watch over the two of us, never leaving me in charge of him. I completely understood that, as leaving a very energetic young glaceon alone with an equally as energetic young zorua didn't seem like the greatest idea. We weren't troublemakers, but we'd probably break something, or break a few things. Maybe a lot of things. The point is, I knew what it was like to have a younger sibling, but not really what it was like to watch over them, or provide for them.

For some reason though, Shiro didn't feel like a younger sibling to me over the short time Kuro and I have been looking after her. She felt almost like something a bit more… She felt like a daughter. I didn't understand why I saw her like this after only being with her for a few days, maybe it had to do with knowing her situation and how it relates to Kuro's and my own, maybe it was because it was the first time I was caring for someone else like this, I had no idea. I was, however, sure of my thoughts.

I didn't know what Shiro thought of Kuro and I as, whether it be guardians, family, or just friends who want to help her. I knew that she felt safe around us, mainly due to the words she gave Kuro and I before we left for Myriad. Her words embedded themselves into me, and perhaps that was another reason I saw her as more of a daughter than a sibling. Shiro was someone I wanted to protect, and I would. Kuro and I both would. I briefly wondered if he thought of Shiro in the same way, like she was his child. That's another topic that I wanted to discuss with Kuro in the future, but it probably wouldn't happen today. I already have a huge info dump waiting for me when he gets back, no need to add anything else to the pile for now. Although, seeing the way Kuro treated Shiro, I doubted he felt any different than I did. _If he has the same thoughts, then… it's almost like we'd be raising a child together._

I stopped walking in the middle of one of the Nest's many paths to linger around in my thoughts. Thoughts that, for some reason, I wanted to both relish in and push away at the same time. Of course, as soon as I wondered about Kuro's opinion on watching over Shiro, a fairly obvious thought popped into my head. I've pushed away thoughts like this in the past, just because they brought me some strange combination of discomfort and comfort at the same time. Like, I was okay with having them, and I acknowledge that I enjoy them, but at the same time, they make me feel very jittery, or uncomfortable. It wasn't a bad type of uncomfortable though, it was like… denial in a way, denial out of embarrassment. _Obviously… if Kuro and I are like parents to Shiro… parents are usually…_

I felt my entire body heat up from my thoughts. I was no longer standing still in the middle of the path, I was instead pacing around in a circle at a decent speed. I should also point something out, my pacing was involuntary. I didn't even notice I was doing it, being too focused on my thoughts.

I sort of... wanted the thoughts to continue. This was the first time I really felt this way, replacing the unsure feelings I had beforehand. I didn't want to push my thoughts away, I just wanted more of them. Every time I thought about Kuro, the same feelings were evident in my body. The same effect applied too, before, I always got rid of my thoughts the second they became clear to me, and now, I just wanted them to continue.

I had no idea what triggered this sudden change. I wasn't like this before we went to Myriad, only after I woke up from Grace's assault. Since then, I just wanted my previously denied thoughts to keep coming up, the second I looked at Kuro for the first time after I woke up was when this started. Through the entire ride here with Aria, the whole time I had my head down, I was thinking of him. I think I know exactly where this started, now that I no longer had an absolutely awful headache, I was able to more clearly look back on memories I couldn't focus on before, namely, what Kuro shouted right before he hit Grace with a heavy attack. After I heard that… despite the situation… it made me happy. I was really happy that Kuro cared about me that much, although at the time, I couldn't focus on this, I felt it. I think it was passed that point when my thoughts began to change. _Past that point… I…_

I shook my head harshly and stopped pacing in a circle, going back to standing still. _Calm down Naru! No need to rush things… I just had this change less than a full day ago, I can give myself time to think. No need to make assumptions like that…_

After breaking out of my trance, I began walking towards Kuro and I's room once more. The spot that I picked to stop and pace was pretty close to my destination, so after a few short minutes of walking, I arrived at the door to my home. I took a second to feel for my bag around my neck, which I thought I left behind at first. I dug my head into the bag, searching for a certain key to get into the room. Once I found said key, I held it in my maw and placed it in the keyhole of the door, before pushing it open.

I laid my eyes on the room I had been residing in for a while now. Just like the arrival at Myriad, it felt really strange to be going from the place I used to live when I was in a downward spiral, back to a place I worshiped as a nirvana. I wasn't used to the change in atmosphere between the two places, especially since the difference was as drastic as it was. I would have to make it a point to get used to that in the future.

I searched the room, looking for a certain vulpix to greet. It only took a second of glancing around the room to find Shiro, laid out in the middle of the floor. She seemed to have a slow reaction to the noise of the door opening, but once she turned her eyes towards me, they widened, along with the smile on her face. She lept to her four paws and began to run towards me.

"You're back!" Shiro ran up next to me and jumped up onto my back. I stumbled a bit, and nearly fell over, but I was happy to see the energy that Shiro had. I was also happy that Kage and Vero provided me with the medicine that swept away my pain, because had they not done that, Shiro would have just pinned me to the ground on accident. Once I was focused on standing steadily, I felt Shiro press her head to the back of my neck and nuzzle it, which made me smile. I would have returned the gesture, but I wasn't really in the type of position to do so without breaking my neck in the process.

"I'm glad to be back with you!" I told her, and felt her lift up her head from my neck. I placed the key I used to open the door back in my bag and was able to remove it from my neck without throwing Shiro off with it.

"Where's Kuro?" I turned my head to the side the best that I could to make our conversation easier.

"He's on his way here, he just had a few extra things to do." I felt Shiro's body shift again, and it now felt like she was lying on her stomach over me. "What did you do while we were gone?" I was curious as to what she did with the space of time she had alone, other than the fact that she was attacked that is.

"I explored this place more, and learned my way around a little bit. I also got lost, but someone helped me find my way back here!" I wondered who exactly helped Shiro get back, but just assumed it was either Kage or Vero after a second or two. "But, something else h-happened too." All of Shiro's previously stated energy seemed to disappear immediately. I understood why. I mean, she was almost killed after all.

"I already know about it, you don't have to explain." I told her softly. "Just know that it won't happen again, not since Kuro and I will be here with you. We'll make sure nothing bad happens." Shiro pressed her head to the back of my neck again.

"Right!" She sounded muffled, but it wasn't hard to make out her words. "I trust you." I just smiled to myself from her words, further solidifying my earlier thoughts.

"How about we go wait for Kuro where he's supposed to land here? Than we can all come back together." Shiro lifted her head again.

"Okay!"

Honestly, I felt the medicine start to wear me down already, and it was beginning to make me tired, but I could hold out until we walk back here with Kuro, then I'll pass out on the ground. I began to walk towards the door with Shiro still on my back, ready to be fully reunited.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I was on Cole's back, while he quickly flew towards the Nest. The wind from the flight loudly flew past my ears, making it impossible to hear anything else, not that I was in the mood to talk anyway. I really appreciated Cole and Aria coming to help us, and I'd love to verbalize it, but it would have to wait until I cleared my mind a bit, so I used this trip back to the Nest to do just that.

Through numerous deep breaths and a lot of mental focus, I was able to calm myself down enough to tell Cyan about what I saw in that shelter, and his reaction was near picture perfect to what I was expecting. It took a lot out of me to seem calm in front of him, but I managed, even if I was obviously ticked off, I still remained calm. I really wanted to let Shine know as well, it was something he had to know, but every time I was about to walk past Cyan to find him, I stopped myself. As much as I knew that it was important for Shine to know about his other friends, I couldn't tell him. No matter how much I tried to will myself into it, I just couldn't. His words ept replaying through my head whenever I thought about notifying him, and it kept me back. Cyan said that he would let Shine know in due time, but he didn't look all that confident in his abilities to translate this information to him either. I was regretful that I couldn't get myself to speak up to Shine, but maybe it's for the better. At least, that's what I'll keep telling myself.

Doing nothing but thinking about what I had just laid my eyes on wasn't going to help me in any way, so I decided to focus on the future, rather than the recent past. I was going back to the Nest after a fairly cluttered two days in Myriad, which I was looking forward to. Not only was Myriad not exactly my favorite place in the world, but a lot had happened there in a short amount of time, and it exhausted me. The Nest was a place I knew that I could be relaxed in, at least for the most part, so I was happy to be going back.

I was also going to be happy to see Shiro again, even if it had only been two days of absence, I did promise her that Naru and I would keep her safe, and the fact that I had to leave so soon after I said that made me uncomfortable, especially considering what happened at the Nest as soon as we left. I sort of saw her as someone I was responsible for, due to the fact that I had been feeding her for as long as I have, and I didn't really have a problem with this, far from it. I enjoyed it, so going back was going to be a breath of fresh air.

After focusing on the future instead of what had just happened, I was in a much better mood. My mind really just flipped around on itself once I started looking at the positives more than the negatives, something I had to do more often. It would certainly help with my levels of stress that have been spiking lately. I needed to pay more attention to where I was now, as opposed to where I was in the past, or what could go wrong in the future. _I'm in a good position now, I need to accept that._ I felt a small smile grow out on my face as the wind started to get less intense.

I looked down off of Cole's back and saw that we were close to the ground of the Nest, and quickly descending. Once Cole made contact with the ground, I hopped off of his back and stretched my legs, which were still sore from yesterday, but I was able to walk. I heard many pops and cracks coming from my bones as I stretched, obviously tense from the flight I just got off of. Cole turned his body to face me, and I gave a small smile.

"Thank you for taking me back, and for helping Naru and I back there. Had you and Aria not come, things may have gotten a bit more complicated than they needed to be." I told him appreciatively. He just nodded his head with his beak curved.

"Not a problem! It was good practice for the two of us. Plus, it was to help other Ravens, something we couldn't turn down." Cole seemed to look around the area of the Nest we landed in for a few seconds, and then turned back to me with a more serious expression.

"Also, I'm not sure what's going on behind the scenes, but I can tell you're dealing with a few things, it's actually pretty obvious by the way you talked to Aria and I." Cole chuckled slightly. "Just know, things will get better for you and your partner. This was just one bump in a long road, a road you both have to walk down. Don't let it be a setback, make it an experience to learn from."

I listened as Cole gave me encouragement. To be honest, I wasn't expecting something like this from him, only because I hadn't really talked with him, well, at all. Not before Myriad. I fought against him in the applicants' tournament, but besides that, we had no communication whatsoever, so this speech wasn't predictable, coming from him. It did, however, give me some insight as to who Cole was as a pokemon, so I just smiled at him.

"Thank you." I looked at the ground, the smile still evident on my face. "I really appreciate it, especially since you don't really know why any of this is happening."

"Hey, like I said, Ravens need to help each other out. This job is stressful, better get used to the communication sooner than later, right?" _Get used to the communication…_ "Well, I'm going to leave for my bed now, it's been a tiring day. See you around!" Cole waved one of his wings at me and I raised a forepaw and did the same. He then flew away to another part of the Nest, and I turned and began walking to Naru and I's room.

I only walked for about a minute, and then I saw a Zoroark begin to approach me from a decent distance away. Vero walked up to me, holding some strange cylindrical object in a paw.

"Welcome back Kuro." She greeted with a small smile. "I was told you'd be here later than Naru, so I came back to where I greeted her. Glad to see you made it okay." I nodded and returned the smile she gave me.

"I had some… business to take care of, but everything should be okay, other than a bit of soreness." I responded.

"About that, hold still for a second." I tilted my head in confusion, but Vero walked closer to me and pressed the object she was holding to my neck, and I felt a small prick. The sensation felt the same as when Grace poisoned me, so I shivered a bit, but once I felt the effects of whatever Vero had just injected me with, my shivering halted immediately in place of energy. The sore feelings in my muscles were sapped away quickly, and after a minute or two, I felt like I had never gotten beat up in the first place. I lifted my forepaws off the ground and put them back down a few times, and then did the same with my back legs. All of my movements felt completely natural, like I wasn't injured in the slightest.

"What exactly did you just do?" I curiously asked Vero. She let out a chuckle in response before explaining to me that two of the other recruits somehow developed a medicine that was powerful enough to nullify pain in a matter of minutes. Apparently, in the applicants' tournament along with us, were two medicinal geniuses. I was amazed at the effects that this injection had on me.

"Wow, I can't imagine how difficult it was for them to make something like this." I said after getting used to my no-longer numb movements. "You wouldn't happen to have one of those for Naru too, would you? She needs something like this a lot more than I do."

"One step ahead of you. I gave her the same thing as soon as she got here, and she felt like a new pokemon." I sighed in relief that Naru was feeling better now. "You must have been worried about her."

"Of course I was. She took way more lethal hits than I did, and she was feeling a lot worse when the two of us woke up. Honestly, just looking at her was stressful at that point." Vero laughed again after I finished talking, and I raised a brow.

"How interesting." She said with a smile, although a different kind of smile than she usually had. She almost looked sly. _What's that about?_

I was about to bid farewell to Vero and head back to Naru and I's room so I could pass out on my bed, but I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and I froze on the spot. The shape I glanced at lowered to the ground in front of Vero and I, who both glared forward. It was Aven.

He seemed to observe me for a few seconds, as if confirming a suspicion, looking at me as if I wasn't real. I just stood still and glared, but he was unaffected. "Why are you here?" He spoke deeply. _What does he mean? Why ask a question like that?_

"What the hell are you talking about?" Vero growled. She clearly wasn't any happier to see the flygon than I was.

"You should be gone." He pointed at me. "Grace should have torn you to shreds, and then brought you back to the Void. Tell me how you're here." _Looks like she hasn't reported back from her failed mission yet. Why is he approaching me like this? Does he honestly want an answer as to how I'm alive?_ I wanted to respond to him, but I felt a lump form in my throat. I couldn't get words past my mouth, I couldn't make a noise. Essentially, I was frozen in front of Aven. I had always been afraid of him, no doubt about that, but I think that the reality check that Grace gave me, showing me how threatening the higher ends of the Void were, multiplied my fear. It was one thing to see him attack my parents the way he did, it was another thing to know just how little I'd be able to do if he tried the same thing with me. Eventually, I managed to croak some words out of my mouth.

"S-She didn't take the battle seriously. Her guard was l-let down, and she was open for a counterattack." I stuttered like an idiot, but I managed to talk.

"I knew she wasn't reliable." Aven placed a claw over his head, closing his gigantic eyes. "It looks like you need two be separated after all." He opened his eyes and stared directly at me.

"S-Separated?" I was still confused as to what Aven's goals were. _What did he mean by separate? Wasn't I their target?_

"It looks like you and your partner can be hard to take down when together. I thought my first attempt to tear you away from each other would work, but you proved me wrong." He shook his head. _When was his first try? What did he even do?_ "You're lucky I have a reason to be here, otherwise the two of you would be dead right now, along with your partner." I growled at him, but found it difficult to form words again. No matter how much I wanted to tell myself that I was getting less scared of the Void, this encounter was more than enough to prove that to be nothing but wishful thinking. "You better watch your back. You know damn well that you're backed into a corner, surrounded by your enemies even in the place you want to call home. Have fun finding a way to deal with that when the time comes." Aven heavily flapped his wings before flying into the air, and went somewhere else in the Nest. I just stared at the space in the air that Aven was just flying, frozen. _That was definitely a threat. A very... possible threat._ I shuddered, not able to gather my thoughts.

"Kuro? You okay?" I was tapped on the back by Vero, which snapped me out of my trance. I relaxed my mind and took a deep breath. _He's gone now Kuro, calm yourself…_

"I'm… okay. Just a little bit shaken." I took another breath to further calm myself.

"Really? Kind of unlike you."

"He's… A special case I guess you can say." I looked to the ground. "After seeing what the stronger members of the Void can do personally, I know what he may be capable of. The thought is just… terrifying." I sort of lied to Vero. She didn't know of my past experiences in detail, the only one who did was Naru.

"I guess that makes sense. I can't say I've ever seen one of them battle seriously, just kind of watched him flap his wings a bunch." _That's right… I almost forgot that she met Aven when we got taken by the Void._ "Well, he can't really do anything as long as he's stuck here doing… something, so it's not worth taking threats at face value right now." I looked up from the ground and nodded.

"You're right. As long as he's here, he won't do anything. I just… need to convince myself of that." It was hard enough to accept that he was here in the first place, but I still needed to tell myself that Aven wasn't going to try anything.

"Just keep that sentiment in mind." I nodded my head. "Now, there is something else that I sort of forgot to tell Naru about earlier, so I'll let you know. It's actually something your mentor told me about, he gave me a lot of valuable information." _Kai did what..?_

Vero then proceeded to explain to me what Kai told her, some very intriguing information. I was really worried at the start of her explaining, but as she talked more, I was relieved to hear that Shiro's life wasn't in danger, and I was admittedly curious as to what exactly that drug did to her other than memory loss, but I was okay without knowing. As long as it wouldn't hurt her in any way, the other effects didn't matter too much. If it did, then we would find out. After a few minutes passed, Vero had told me everything that Kai had said.

"I have no idea how he knew all of this, or how he knew about Aven, but he gave some valuable information. You should thank him for me next time you he teaches you something." _The reason he had all of that information…_

"I'll be sure to let him know, and I'll tell Naru when I get back to our room also." I said with a nod of my head.

"Sounds good. Sorry to have to tell you all of this right when you got back, especially after the fight you just went through."

"It's not a big deal. I'd rather know it sooner than later. Plus, I need to explain a bunch of stuff to Naru anyway, so I guess this is just preparing me for that." I sighed slightly. _Not looking forward to that…_ "Speaking of which, I should get back to our room before I pass out in the middle of the Nest."

"Oh! Forgot about the medicine, you should probably get going then. I should go back too." I nodded my head to Vero and she waved a claw at me, which I mirrored with one of my forepaws. We walked off in separate directions, and I had even more to tell Naru. _Hopefully she's not passed out on the ground when I get there…_

It didn't take too long for me to make it to the room that Naru and I resided in, but I was starting to feel the effects of the medicine I took. I felt a little bit lightheaded, but it wasn't anything compared to how numb I felt after getting injected by Grace's poison, so I could hold out. I walked up to the familiar door that led to Naru and I's room, and stood in front of it, happy to be back. I swung my bag around to the front of my body and bent my head down to search for the key, but instead, I felt myself get smacked in the head by a hard surface, knocking me down in the direction that the door opened, and dazing me slightly.

I looked up from the ground that I was now laying on, and realized that the door to our room had been opened, and subsequently bashed into the side of my head. _That door is a lot heavier than it looks…_ I was still dazed from the impact, but I shook my head in order to un-blur my vision. Standing over me were two familiar pokemon, both of which I was very happy to see. One of them looked excited, the other concerned.

"You're back!" Shiro shouted before jumping onto the side of my body facing away from the ground, making me even more thankful for the medicine I was given. Shiro put her head to the side of mine and rubbed against it, which made me smile.

"Good to see you, Shiro." I placed a forepaw on her head, still laying on the ground from being knocked down. I looked up towards Naru, who was standing still, assessing the situation.

"Wait… did I just..?" She looked down at me. "S-Sorry! I didn't know you were on the other side! Are you okay?" I chuckled in response.

"I'm fine, nothing to be sorry about." I pushed myself off of the ground, and Shiro went from the side of my body to the top of my back, where she leaned against my neck. "How are you feeling?" I asked Naru, still admittedly concerned about her condition.

"I'm doing great! Something that Vero gave me took away pretty much all of my residing pain. I feel like I never got hurt in the first place!" Naru excitedly exclaimed. "What about you? Did you get the same treatment?" I nodded.

"Right after we landed. I agree with you, feels like we never even fought in the first place."

"What happened to you while you were away?" Shiro asked, putting her forepaws on my head and standing up on my back. Naru looked at us and laughed, probably because of the way Shiro and I looked.

"We'll tell you all about what we did, but let's go inside and relax first." Naru turned around and headed back inside the room she just came from, and I followed suit. _It really feels like it's been longer than two days since I walked in here. Maybe the clutter of events that happened is messing with my time perception..._

Naru, Shiro and I all sat in a small circle in the middle of the room while we explained to each other the many things that took place in the past two days. Shiro told Naru and I about her adventures through the Nest while we were gone, but only glossed over the part where she was attacked, which was understandable. She ended up getting lost more than a few times while navigating the gargantuan place, but said she was beginning to get a feel for where a lot of important places were, so getting lost was productive in some ways. The fact that she met with Kai was intriguing to say the least, especially when she described him as 'nice.' I had more than a few uncertainties regarding him, but I was nowhere near in the mental state I needed to be in to think about those right now. I was just glad that he didn't do anything to Shiro, and more so that he helped her. I took it as another tip on what kind of pokemon Kai is, but every time I've thought about that in the past, I just remind myself that he's a part of the Void. It was simple as that, I've seen what he does right before my eyes, so I didn't need to make assumptions of his character. _It's that simple, right..?_

After Shiro was done explaining, Naru and I went into everything we did while in Myriad. I told Shiro about the groups of kids that we met on our first mission, and Naru described all of the things she did while surveying Myriad. I obviously left out the missing portion of the group, because Shiro didn't need to know about that, not for any reason. Naru and I did tell Shiro about our encounter with Grace, but didn't go into too much detail. We just said that she was the one who hurt us, not saying how she did, or how bad the injuries really were before we had medicine to help with it. Once more, this was information Shiro just… didn't need to know, it would do nothing but disturb and scare her. Once we all finished explaining our activities of the past two days, I was beginning to feel light-headed again, and it looked like Naru was the same way. She got the medicine before I did, so hers had to be worse than mine. Shiro walked over to her bed and fell asleep rather quickly, probably crashing from the over-excitement she just had. Now that Naru and I were the only ones awake, I knew what I had to do, despite how close I felt to fainting.

"Okay, I promised that I'd tell you about how I knew those pokemon who approached us right before Grace attacked, so here it goes," I explained to Naru every detail from the first encounter I had with them, how I inferred who they were, and how their most prominent member attempted to hurt me, but failed miserably. I didn't have to go too far into detail with the last part though, as she sort of saw it when we encountered them.

"Huh, I knew you had to have known who they were when they showed up in front of us, but I didn't know it was to that end." Naru turned her eyes to the ground for a few seconds and smiled. "Thanks for that. It means a lot to me." I smiled in response. I was glad there was more of a meaning behind my actions other than proving a point.

I then explained to Naru everything that Vero told me, which originally came from Kai. Of course, Naru also knew how Kai had all of this information, but there was still a factor to this I didn't understand. _Why say anything?_ Sure, he is a part of the Void, so it made sense that he would know about their agenda, as well as why Shiro was nearly stolen from the Nest, but that still left room to question. _Why would he say anything? It doesn't make sense, wouldn't it only harm them in the process?_ Aven gave information in order to scare me, and also knew I couldn't do anything about it, so the interaction I had with him earlier made a lot more sense than Kai telling Vero all of this. _Not worth dwelling on right now…_

"We'll have to keep an eye out for Shiro acting different, or if anything weird happens to her." I told Naru, receiving a nod.

"I agree. No need for unnecessary risks, right?" Naru stared at me curiously. "So, why did you want to stay behind in Myriad for a little bit longer?" I internally flinched at the question. I purposely didn't mention it at all in our previous conversation, honestly hoping that she would forget about it. _Guess I have no choice…_

"Well, I was… suspicious about something. I assume that Aria told you about that massacre that took place in the place we were supposed to look at." Naru nodded. "Well, I wanted to… make sure of something. I made a theory as to who was killed in there, and I needed to figure out if I was right or not. It was… important." I knew I wasn't going to get away with being that vague, so I took a deep breath and readied myself to get into the more fine details.

"Remember how I told you that the orphanage camp we went to on our first mission was split up? I had no idea where the other group could possibly be, and neither did any of the other children from the camp, but if one group made it here, than the other one couldn't be too far away." I took another breath and looked down, the images of my examination of the bloodied shelter coming back to my mind. "I… wanted to make sure that the kids weren't killed, that I was just overthinking the situation. They were a group of innocent children that did nothing wrong, none of them deserved something like that, so I needed to see it with my own eyes." My body began to tense up. Just talking about this made me emotional, it's a miracle I actually managed to not lose my mind while I was looking at the pile of corpses.

"Well, what were the results? The kids weren't there, right?" Naru sounded really concerned, as if considering the possibility just as I did. I just bit my lip, it was becoming hard to talk without choking up.

"T-They were." I said in a pained voice. "The remaining c-children, and the adults l-looking after them, they were in the mess of bodies." I grit my teeth, not feeling confident in my ability to talk anymore. Naru just stood in front of me with a sombre expression, probably holding similar feelings. _None of them… None of them deserved any of this…_ My body started to shake again, just as it did when I initially found the children.

"Who could have done this..?" Naru asked with a low tone. _Not many are capable of this kind of brutality._

"I'd be surprised if it wasn't a Void member." I stared at the ground, staring at my shaking paws. "All of the pokemon there were absolutely m-mutilated. I can't see anyone else responsible than a pokemon that works for the Void."

"But, what has you so bothered?" I looked up at Naru, confused by her question. "I mean, this is an awful thing to happen, I'm… not happy about it," She shook her head. "But, you look like you're on the verge of tears, and I know how difficult it is to make you get to that point. Is there something more about this that's eating away at you?" _Something more? Of course, the fact that all of those kids were no longer alive was upsetting, but that isn't the only reason why I feel like this, is it?_ It wasn't too hard to pinpoint the source.

I told Naru about the interaction I had with Shine, including the exact words he told me when I talked to him. His determination seemed unwavering, he wanted to reunite with the rest of his group, and was willing to push himself to do it, but it was too late, and he didn't even know, thanks to me not being brave enough. My own actions were also contributing to my current state of mind, but that really wasn't the heart of it. Once I finished explaining why I felt the way I did to Naru, not much had changed. It felt admittedly good to speak it out loud, but it didn't really change much. I looked back on the ground, just trying to calm myself. Naru had moved closer to me and placed one of her paws on my head, which calmed me down a bit. Only a bit though. We just sat in front of one another in silence. Being close to Naru made me feel a lot better than I did when I initially found out about all of this, even if we were in complete silence.

"I… I wish I could say something to help you." I glanced up at Naru with one of my eyes. She sounded guilty, which I haven't heard since the day I met her. _You don't have any reason to feel guilty._

"You're already doing enough to help me. Plus, I can tell this upsets you too, you don't need to focus on me so much." I was more joyus than I thought I'd be when I realized that Naru was pretty much tossing away her own comfort to help with mine, but I still thought it was a bad idea for her.

"But, you have more of a connection to this than I do, it's better that-"

"No." I interrupted, shaking my head. "That doesn't matter, you shouldn't hinder your own emotions for my benefit. If you do that… It'll just have the opposite effect." Naru seemed to be taken off-guard, she lifted her paw off of my head a little bit.

"What do you mean?" She gazed at me curiously.

"I don't want you to sacrifice your own emotions for mine. I really appreciate everything you've done for me in the past whenever I was upset for any reason, or unsure about something, but please, only do it if you can without it affecting you. If making me feel better affects you negatively in the process, then I'd rather find a way to cope by myself." She still wore the same confused expression.

"That's nonsense." Naru shook her head. "If I have the opportunity to help you, I'm going to take it. I don't care how it affects me." _Please don't think like that…_

"I really don't want you to be hurt by helping me."

"And I don't want you to feel upset at all if I can help it."

"It's not worth you sacrificing your own feelings."

"It is if it makes you feel better."

"I… really don't want you to think like that."

"If I think you need help, I'm helping you, end of story." I bit my lip over Naru's persistence. _Why is she so determined?_ I had such mixed feelings about all of the things that Naru was saying right now. Of course, I didn't want her to not focus on herself, but at the same time, it flattered me that she was willing to do what she was in order for me to not have emotional problems. I still wanted to protest though, but I didn't have much of a chance to. Naru had pressed her crown to my forehead, leaning against me. I looked directly into her eyes, about an inch or two away from mine.

"Tell me, the reason you don't want me to help is because you're worried about me feeling upset too, right?" Naru didn't break her gaze on me while she talked.

"Yes. I don't want you to develop the same problem I have." I said, also not looking away.

"Well, I feel the same way about you. Whether I'm upset or not, I want to make sure that you're not having any problems before I solve my own." I wanted to say something, but Naru continued. "Not to offend you, but I know that you have some problems with handling your emotions, yesterday is proof of that. But… I don't have the same problem. I know how to handle myself, and I know how to vent without having emotional buildup. I understand why you do, and I want to help you with it as much as I can." _She's not wrong… but I still can't agree with her._

"Even if you don't have the same problem, you've already helped me so much in the past… and I've done next to nothing to help you in return. You're always the one assuring me of one thing or another, and you're even hindering yourself so you can continue. Yet, I still can't find any ways to help you." For the first time in this conversation, I averted my eyes.

"You've helped me a lot more than you think you know." Naru closed her eyes. "You keep on telling yourself that you're not helping, but did you forget the day I met you? The very first thing you did, both when I ran into you and when you saved me from being killed, was reassure me. You cheered me up, and made me feel a lot less guilty than I was at the time. Not only that, but time and time again after we started our lives at the Nest, you helped me whenever I wasn't confident about something, or if I needed to be talked to. I mean, come on Kuro! You literally just helped me overcome a mental barrier I had with the pokemon who used to torture me when I was younger. Saying that you haven't helped me at all is ridiculous."

"Even so… does it even compare to how much you've helped me?" Sure, I've helped her, she proved that to me, but was it anything compared to what she's done for me?

"Why does that matter?" I finally brought my eyes back to Naru's from the ground. "We both want to help each other, so why does the amount matter? All that matters is that we've both done the same for one another in the past." I picked apart all of what Naru just said, looking for anything that might have been inconsistent, but I came up blank. Instead, I just let a smile grow on my face. Naru obviously noticed.

"Just add another one to the list." I said, gaining a chuckle from Naru.

"But that list doesn't matter, right?"

"Right."

Naru and I separated out heads a little bit, and then my body sort of had an automatic motion. I moved my head passed Naru, and rubbed up against the side of her head with my eyes closed. I'm not exactly sure what caused me to do this, but Naru returned the gesture, which made my body envelop in a comforting warmth. I just wanted to be close to her right now, it put me at peace. While focusing on this very pleasant feeling, I felt my body become really weak all of a sudden, nearly making me fall over. I opened my eyes a little bit, only to see a blur, instead of clear images.

 _Right… medicine…_ My mind went blank and I passed out.

* * *

Hello Readers!

So, longest chapter since chapter ten, had a hard time deciding on where I wanted to end it, but I'm satisfied with my final decision. A question for you all: Do you enjoy longer chapters more? (8 or 9K, sometimes a bit more.) Or do you prefer them a little bit shorter? (4,5, or 6K) Typically, I think a lot of people like longer ones, but I don't want to assume and then keep on writing in a way that people don't want me to, so let me know!

I want to thank all of you who have sent in reviews, or have PM'd me, or given other forms of communication. I appreciate all of it, it puts a huge smile on my face! Also, thanks to my beta-reader for cleaning up my chapters, making them more presentable! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	24. A bad omen

**?**

My body felt as if it was artificial. As a mawile, getting used to a giant metallic jaw hanging off of the back of your head as it grew was a bit taxing. Once a mawile comes into this world, they already have the jaw hanging off of them, so it feels natural at first, but over time as it grows, the weight of your body begins to become lopsided in favor of that jaw, creating a constant balancing act that you need to make as natural as breathing. It's not too difficult, but it's definitely different from, say, evolving into a new body and getting used to that. However, right now, I balanced without effort.

I was locked in a large room, which had the composition of a bright-silver metal without light reflection of any kind. The room was only dimly lit from a few lights that seemed to be coming from above the ceiling, which I found very odd. It was like they were phasing through the solid metal. Other than the odd light, there was nothing in this room other than a large sliding door on one of the walls. It was safe to assume I was brought in through there, and I would eventually exit from the same point. I was at the mercy of those who took me here, trying again and again to break out of this room, but nothing worked. _Even with whatever they did to me…_

I didn't feel natural at all right now, clearly because of whatever these pokemon did to me. My body didn't feel, or even look like my own. It was something entirely different, made even more evident to me by my reflection in the metal below me. I wasn't a traditional mawile anymore. My body was the same color as my jaw, with a red circle in the middle of my stomach. The circle originally on my jaw was gone completely, and my eyes were bright blue. I was no longer a mawile by my definition. I was some kind of genetic mess. My own appearance disturbed me, knowing that it was an augmented one. I also felt as if I had grown in some way, like I had been strengthened.

My balance regarding the jaw on the back of my head was perfect, which it had never been in the past. I didn't have to try in the slightest to stay upright, it was like the jaw wasn't there in the first place. As foreign as this was, my entire body also felt lighter, like I could move twice the speed I usually would, again, without effort. Physical feelings aren't even the only thing wrong with me, I was able to do certain things that I was clearly not supposed to be able to. For example, the one that met with me when I first woke up, an umbreon, who held a sinister smile, did something to me in order to stop me from resisting her. She hit me with some sort of attack that pierced me, but didn't make me bleed immediately. It looked as if I was being pierced, but it was almost like, in reality, I wasn't. It sure as hell felt like I was though. It felt like the attack shred through my skin, muscles, and pierced my bones, It was easily the worst pain I've ever experienced, but it wasn't even physically damaging me, just causing a ton of pain, at least, at first it wasn't.

Once the umbreon had their fill of staring me down while in grave pain, they somehow detonated the attack, causing me to fly back into the wall behind me. This attack also blew off both of my arms, and created a gaping hole in the center of my body, replacing the artificial red ring. Even though I was in a condition beyond dead at that point, I looked down at myself, and my limbs were back, and there was no hole in my stomach. A combination of the pain and shock sent me into unconsciousness, but I know for a fact that I was missing limbs, and that they immediately came back. Once this really registered in my mind, I was beyond calling myself a pokemon anymore. I was just some sort of monster now.

A loud creaking noise echoed throughout the room I was in, and I swung my head to the large sliding door, which was beginning to open. I instantly glared at the entrance, nobody I saw in this place was going to greet me with a smile, they were here to torture me, to utilize me as a weapon. _Not that I'll let them. I refuse to do anything for them after they wiped us all out._

A leafeon entered the room with a lazy expression, like they didn't want to be here. Unlike me, they looked like a normal leafeon, other than very faint purple shading on the top of their ears, and on the leaves that extended from their chest. They yawned loudly before walking closer to me, not stopping until about five feet away. I just held my glare, preparing myself for anything this leafeon might try.

"Alright Metal Face, I don't have very much patience right now, so how about you follow me before I make you into a salad." I lowly growled at the leafeon, ignoring both the nickname and threat she gave me. "Please don't resist, please, please please! I just got done dealing with Hothead, and even with our help he's pretty pathetic, so don't make this difficult, not in the mood."

"You brought someone else here too!?" I shouted angrily, assuming that 'Hothead' was another pokemon that was taken and then turned into whatever I am.

"Huh? Course' I did. Kind of my job, you know? If I ignore my boss' orders, than I don't get to interact with anyone we take, which is where a lot of my fun comes from. Plus, she makes me clean the place. Do you know how hard it is to get bloodstains off of the ceiling? Especially for a non-biped? Let me tell you, the amount of times I have kissed this floor is inconceivable." The leafeon stomped her forepaws on the metallic floor below us. _What is up with this girl?_ She acted nothing like the other pokemon I've seen here.

"Why did you take me back here? Why not just let me die?" I asked, desperately wanting answers.

"Metal Face, you're asking the wrong pokemon. I barely know the reason I bring back certain pokemon I find, and you want me to tell you why someone else brought you here? You have a better chance getting an answer if you asked The Assassin to give you his name." _What? The Assassin?_ "I think I know where you came from, you were with that weird group of kids, right? Then the Assassin was probably the one who killed everyone, and then someone else came and retrieved you. He doesn't like to take any prisoners, just slices and dices until all of his targets are dead." The leafeon shook her head. "I don't get it, how can he kill that many pokemon and not be the least bit interested about what's on the inside? He just slashes and moves on, never observing his victims, but how can you not like taking apart a body!? IT'S SO FUN!" The leafeon shouted. Ignoring their comments, I realized that she just told me who was responsible for murdering everyone in that shelter, as well as the comrades I was with. I grit the teeth of my large jaw, as well as my normal jaw simultaneously. _She's treating all of this like it doesn't matter._

"Wait, are you the same mawile that our experiments worked on for the first time!? You're going down in a history book for being the first step towards the Void overtaking the Nest! Congratulations! I should make you a medal or something." _What is she even talking about now?_

"What do you mean I'm the first step? And what even is the Nest?" The leafeon smirked at me.

"You're confirmation that our experiments can work, I mean, Boss blew you to freakin' shreds! Look at yourself, you're not in pieces right now, what do you suppose that means? You are no longer a normal pokemon, you are the Void's newest bio-weapon." _Bio-weapon?_ "As of now, you can be sliced to shreds, blown up, stabbed, burned, or crushed, and you'll always survive. Your body will heal itself nearly instantaneously, even if you lose a vital organ. Of course, you're not invincible, that regeneration had a limit, but it's not going to be broken unless you neglect your condition." Her eyes widened, and she put on a terrifying smile, one that made me cower. "And the Nest? Let's just say they don't like what we do, and we don't like what they do. We hate them, and they hate us. That's all you really need to know. That, and you're going to work with us whether you want to or not."

"You can't force me to do anything!" Without hesitation, I rushed towards the leafeon, wanting to smack her as hard as I could with my jaw. Despite my new fast movement, she managed to sidestep me and then placed a paw on my back, before wincing.

"Owwww... Moved too fast. Still not fully healed, and I guess I shouldn't be picking fights." I opened my jaw and attempted to clamp the leafeon, but she, once again, slipped away, and was standing in front of me now. "Now now… No point in resisting, you'll be at the Void's mercy soon enough. While we're waiting for you to become a mindless machine, I think I'll warm up my muscles a bit." The leafeon suddenly headbutted my chest, sending me into the metallic wall. Despite my new condition, it still hurt exactly as it would if I was normal. An ache traveled throughout my body, and I struggled to stand up again.

"By the way, you're going to have to be used to your new body, which means building up a pain resistance. Let me help you out a little." She put on the same terrifying grin that was on her face earlier, and walked towards me. Once she was standing over me, I noticed the leaf on her head begin to glow. "I think you should see your new body working with your own eyes!"

The leafeon brought her head down, and cleanly sliced through the top of my chest, and amputated one of my arms. I felt each fiber in my body rip apart, screaming in pain while still on the ground. For some odd reason, I wasn't bleeding, instead, a thick orange matter came out of my now opened wounds. This matter took the shape of the missing limb I had, as well as the clean cut across my chest. A second later, my arm seemed to have formed, only it was orange for a few seconds, before shifting back to the same color as the rest of my body. The pain was sapped away along with the orange matter, and I felt just like I did before I was slashed. I shakily brought myself to my feet, having a hard time accepting that this was real.

"As you can see, your new body doesn't like to give up. You still feel pain, but it'll take a lot of repeated attacks to harm your regeneration. Even if it's not invincible, it's also not something I would want to tango with." I found myself frozen, unable to move or speak. "Sadly, you look like trouble, sooooo I'm going to have to take precautionary measures in order to escort you." She walked up close to me again. "You want to know the most common way pokemon pass out? Believe it or not, it's not exhaustion." She smiled. "It's shock."

I felt another leaf plunge into my body, only this time, directly in the center of my neck. It ripped through my throat, cutting me off from breathing or speaking, and filling me with an even worse pain than the first time.

The sensation was enough to make my vision disappear.

* * *

 **?** (Different from the first)

My adrenaline was pumping as I continued to lay into the metallic wall in front of me. After a while, I began to make dents, which was a huge sign of progress when compared to my previous state of being. I may not have been breaking anything to pieces yet, but I could feel the immense boost in my body already. I had only been injected an hour or two ago, and already saw that I was a completely different pokemon. _Just you wait... Both of you…_

I had been dragged to a random room by the leafeon who took me here while I happened to be unconscious. After hearing her call me by a nickname that I viewed as rather insulting, I decided to be as difficult as possible when it came to her taking me around this place, but my resistance didn't last too long. Once I was threatened to be made into a salad, I decided to adhere to her wishes.

I was meant to meet with the boss of this place, which I now knew to be the Void. I was more than skeptical when I first woke up, unsure of what to think of the mass of metal that I found myself in. It didn't take very long for the leafeon, Grace, to come to me, giving me a supplement of what she promised. As soon as the substance entered my body, I felt revitalized. Maybe that was an understatement, I felt like a new pokemon. I still looked the same, the same as any other hitmonchan, but I most certainly felt the change within me. It only took a few minutes, and I was someone else now.

According to Grace, I wasn't the only one undergoing experimental treatment here, there was also a mawile that was being given a slightly more advanced version of what I had. I didn't know the details, but if it turned out to be anything like what happened to me, then it was probably just as grand, maybe even better if it contained something more advanced. I wasn't too concerned with it though, more concerned with getting used to the way I felt now. It felt great, sure, but it was still very different, and needed to be adapted to.

I spent the past hour or so just wailing on the metallic walls that surrounded me, seeing how destructive I might be now. I could leave a lot of dents around the room, and considering the material, that was an achievement. I didn't feel tired in the slightest either, as if I had an infinite amount of energy building up within my body and couldn't be expelled. I smirked to myself while trying to think of the reaction of the two pokemon I hated most in the world when they saw this.

While reveling in my thoughts, I heard a distinct scratching sound coming from the metal that surrounded me. After turning my body, I noticed that one of the two doors on either side of the room had opened, and in walked a leafeon that I recognized, as well as a mawile, restrained by a liquid-like black substance, sticking both of their arms together, the same substance being present over the gigantic jaw hanging off of the back side of their body. They didn't look very comfortable, but Grace didn't seem to care too much.

"Okay, now that I finally managed to get you two in here, you're going to meet with Boss. I suggest you both watch your tongues, or else you may lose them." Grace led the mawile to the center of the room, fairly close to me. They just kept their head down and eyes closed, a look of self-loathing ever so present on their features. I disregarded it for the most part and turned towards the door on the other side of the room, which Grace was standing in front of. Without even doing anything, the door swiftly slid open after a few seconds, revealing a flygon towering over Grace.

"Heya Passionless!" The flygon just stared at Grace blankely. "I brought our two future members here, just as I was asked. See? I told you I can follow orders!" She stated proudly. _Is that an achievement?_

"You being proud of that is the reason you're not utilized." The flygon bluntly stated. He sounded very devoid of any kind of emotion.

"Awwww, come on, at least I'm fun to be around!" Grace put on a toothy smile, and the flygon just shook their head, not speaking. "You, on the flipside, are the complete opposite. Why don't you show me how you're feeling? Something? Anything? Or do you really just have a complete lack of any sort of vibe?" The two Void members just held each other's stare, Grace looking like she was trying her hardest to focus on finding something in the flygon that gave away an emotion. "Fine then, I finished my job for now, and I still have blood to clean off of the ceiling, so I'm leaving now. Tell Boss I said hi!" Grace turned around and walked by the mawile and I, before exiting into the hallway once more.

"Now, enter." I looked at the flygon, who was motioning for us to walk into the room he was standing in the doorway of. The mawile behind me finally opened their eyes and walked into the room, clearly uncomfortable. I can't say I felt much different as I nervously followed.

The room we found ourselves in was a bit of a change from the previous atmosphere that I was engrossed in. Instead of the blinding silver, the metal that made up this room was dark blue, with what looked like a bunch of shelves sticking out from a lot of the lower and higher parts of the walls, holding files that contained who knows what. There was a desk near the end of the large room, which I first assumed was also made out of metal, but upon further observation, it looked like something else that had been painted. The desk was completely clean of anything, making my vision of the pokemon behind the desk clear as day. It was an umbreon, which set me off initially, but I quickly composed myself upon realization that this was not the same one that I had such negative feelings about. They just stared at us for a few moments, not even breaking from the sound of the door closing. The flygon walked past us and stood behind the umbreon, who cleared their throat.

"So, you two are the first examples of our newest experiments? I'm curious, how does it feel?" The umbreon spoke with a non-monotone voice, holding a rather malicious one instead. Despite her asking us a question, I couldn't really find my voice. This umbreon… she may not have been someone else whom I greatly dislike, but she exerted a large pressure from her eyes alone. A pressure that made me feel like a speck of dust that could be blown away in an instant, without a second thought.

"What's wrong? No need to feel so intimidated, after all, you'll be working with me now, so we'll be talking quite a bit in the future." Her speech didn't help my feelings in the slightest. She was different from Grace, very much so, that was evident by interacting with the umbreon for less than five minutes. Grace, while threatening, was still easy to talk to, mainly because of her rather… lax personality. This was just… different. Different in every way. The mawile next to me didn't seem to share my fearful thoughts.

"I'll never work for you…" The mawile growled from beside me. It caught me off-guard, as I assumed he came here willingly like I did, but this didn't seem to be the case. The umbreon just laughed at him.

"Sorry, but you really don't have much of a choice. Why don't you feel proud instead? The stuff we gave you isn't common you know, be happy that you're the one who gets to test it out." The mawile glared at the umbreon, clearly not amused. I didn't notice at first, but he had blue eyes, which wasn't normal for a mawile. His body was also the same color as his jaw, again, not natural.

"Why would I ever feel proud of this?" He scoffed. "You made me into a monster. You should have just let me succumb to the fate that one of your members put on me." His gaze was cast towards the blue floor below us. "You should have let me die with everyone else there." _What happened to this guy?_

"If anyone is to blame, it's you." The two pokemon locked eyes again. "Not many can live a full minute after getting attacked by the Assassin. Look at you, alive and well quite some time after the assault. Had your body not been as resilient as it was, you would have easily died."

"If you never took me to this place, then I still would have died, so why couldn't you just have left me there!?" The mawile began to get agitated.

"We saw an opportunity and we took it, simple as that. You were a suitable candidate for our tests, so we took advantage of that." The umbreon stood up and walked around her desk, before standing in front of the mawile. "We need live pokemon to be test subjects for our experiments, and now that you're here, and it worked on you, you're not being wasted."

"I'll kill myself before I do anything to help you." He growled.

"Too bad you can't, not with what we gave you. Sure, someone else may be able to kill you if they put enough effort forward, but you won't be able to do it yourself." The umbreon chuckled, clearly happy about addressing her superiority.

"I'll find someone else to do it then! If I can't do it myself, then someone else will kill me, I'll make sure of it!"

"And you really think it'll be that easy?" She put on a curious tone. "Tell me, who do you think would be able to wear down your regeneration? It wouldn't be some random civil, that's for sure." _Regeneration?_

"What about that organization that rivals yours? The first time I run into one of them, I'll have them kill me on the spot!" _Is he talking about the Nest..?_

"Oh, like they'll do anything once they figure out I took you. They'll know that you're not really part of the Void, and they won't want to kill you. Although we may be similar in a lot of ways, there's the defining difference right there. We, all of us, will kill at a moment's notice, Ravens like to hesitate." _In what ways are they similar?_

"If I act as a Void member, they won't know, and then they would be more than willing to end my life right then and there." The mawile said with confidence, but the umbreon just laughed.

"You won't be able to act like a Void member without doing your fair share of killing, I'll see to that." She gave a sickening smile. "Then again, maybe your plan could work, maybe you'll get a Raven to attack you again and again, putting you into increasing agony, before you finally break down. I wouldn't put it past some of them. That place isn't as clean as it looks, so perhaps you will be killed." _What does she mean?_

"If they're the opposite of you, then they can't be that bad, I'd much rather die, knowing that I was killed for a good reason, than stay here and help you at all!"

"You really think we're opposites?" The umbreon shook her head and began to pace back and forth. "You think, just because the Nest is trying to stop us, that means they're some kind of warriors of justice? Give me a break. Want to hear something interesting? I wouldn't be surprised if the Nest have killed more innocent pokemon than the Void has. Many pokemon have this image of the Nest in their heads: the Nest is a fantastic organization that was made to put an end to the Void's activities. Do you really think that's why the Nest exists?" She stopped walking, this time standing in front of both of us.

"Spend some time with the Nest's founder, and you'll know that the Nest isn't this pure place to be worshipped. They aren't angels, they're a set of devils that wear a mask, unlike the Void. At the moment, it's no secret that we have an ongoing war with one another, we have for more than a decade. They advertise themselves as this place that does nothing but help pokemon who request to be helped, nothing more behind the scenes. Why do you think these pokemon need help? Or rather, what do you think they need help with? Do you think that these pokemon just reach out to the Nest for general needs? It's not that simple. Pokemon only ask help of the Nest when they're up to something malicious themselves." The umbreon took a few steps forward, coming uncomfortably close to the mawile and I.

"Want an example? A while back, the Void attacked a camp in order to test out a new chemical we developed to knock pokemon out. There happened to be three Ravens there delivering a parcel to one of the adults who ran that camp. They lost track of the parcel in the confusion we created, and you want to know what that parcel happened to be?" She paused for a few seconds."It was filled with lethal poison. I'd assume that whoever ordered that from the Nest was planning to end the lives of everyone who inhabited that camp. The Nest knew about the contents of this parcel, maybe not the Ravens who delivered it, but the pokemon who organized that mission to take place was all too aware. And you know what? The task still went through, and if we hadn't intervened conveniently as we did, all of the pokemon there would have died not too long after the delivery took place."

I was confused, shocked, and overall suspicious about the information that was being fed to me right now.

Looking at things logically for once, this umbreon actually had a point. I've known of the Nest since I was a child, although not knowing it as 'the Nest,' I knew about Ravens and the tales that came with them. Never expected the likes of Naru to become one of them, but that didn't change anything between us, I still despised her as much as always. That's beside the point though, I had to think about what exactly the umbreon was telling me. She was telling me that all of the stories that I had regarding Ravens, could be true to some extent, but has something darker going on behind the scenes. It had something to do with their leader, but I had no idea what exactly the case was. I was barely given any information, let alone something that specific. But, seeing the Nest as a parallel to the Void as opposed to an opposite was a little hard for me to believe. It was a sudden burst of information to take in, and I don't think I was mentally prepared to process all of it.

I had to keep something in mind though, all of this was coming from the leader of the Void. Granted, I came here of my own free will, but that didn't mean I was ready to unconditionally trust this umbreon. She could be spouting nothing but nonsense, but I didn't have any way of knowing.

"The Nest is also the entity that spreads most of the information regarding the Void. They advertise us to be nothing but mindless killers, and even if they're not wrong about the killing part, they really are misinformed. They constantly say that all we want to do is kill and cause havoc all over, but we do have an endgame, and the Nest knows this, but never tell the public. They want us to seem as terrible and erratic as possible to make us look worse, and make them look like the counter, but the truth isn't so black and white." _All of this… It seems like a manipulation game on both sides._

"What could you possibly be aiming for that involves all of this meaningless slaughter!?" The mawile yelled. His emotions probably built up quite a bit over the exposition that was just given to us.

"You haven't been here nearly long enough for me to tell you our goals. I doubt someone like you would get it anyway." She turned to look at me, which made a shiver go up my spine. "Although, a big step to this goal involves a certain pokemon that you dislike. We need something from him to set our overall plan into motion, and that may just be the most important task for the Void right now." I still felt small under her stare, but I felt a bit of excitement spark within me at the mention of who I assumed to be the other umbreon. "I will say that he needs to be brought here alive, but I have no need for his partner, another pokemon you're not too fond of." I didn't question the reason that one of them needed to be alive and the other didn't, but that was fine by me. I would in no way hesitate to beat him to a bloody pulp before bringing him back, and maybe even bring back some old fun that I used to have with Naru.

"I'll do whatever I need to. I just want to get back at them." I responded to the umbreon, which made her grow a devious smile. The mawile next to me sent me a glare, but I ignored it. I didn't really care about the Nest, or the Void for that matter, I just wanted my revenge, and I was going to get it. I will say that it was interesting to hear about these two conflicting organizations, but in the end, it didn't matter to me. I didn't belong to either, I just took refuge with one in order to boost myself in the right direction to my goal.

"Perfect. I'm glad I have one valuable member here." She turned her head back to the mawile, who was still glaring harshly. "It's pretty clear to me that you won't obey anything I say, so I'm afraid that you're forcing me to do this. Don't worry, you might get your wish after all, at least, you'll definitely feel like you're dead." The umbreon walked right up to the mawile and placed one of her paws on his head. He seemed too surprised by the gesture to resist in any way. She gave another malicious smile.

An extremely bright flash lit up the whole room, causing me to shield my eyes. I tried to get a glance of what caused the flash, but I just saw a very blurry picture. I saw a few small pink lights, and two very small specks of purple, before I was nearly blinded. I couldn't make out anything until the bright light left the room. In its place stood the umbreon, still looking exactly the same in every way. I turned my eyes to the mawile, and there was something wrong with him. His eyes kept their blue coloring, but instead of a fierce glare, he just held an empty gaze, staring at nothing. The umbreon took her paw off of the mawile and laughed, before looking at me.

"By the way, I need to give you a new name now that you're working here, and other than whatever random name Grace probably gave you." _Hothead…_ "I'm going to call you Nekro from now on. And by the way, my name is Luna." _Nekro… I have a new name now._

"Understood, Lady Luna." I bowed my head down. I honestly hated being obedient to anyone, but I knew I would have to make an exception in order to get what I wanted.

"Someone catches on quick." Luna chuckled and then walked back to her desk, the mawile following her for some reason. She turned around to look at me again. "I want you to head back to the room Grace brought you from. In there, you'll find a bunch of new equipment for you in order to get more used to your enhanced body. Spend some time there, and then tell me when you feel like you can try proving to me that you're a worthy asset." I nodded my head and turned to walk to the door I entered from, which slowly opened.

 _I'm on my way… Better prepare yourselves!_ I walked down the hall with a huge smile on my face.

* * *

Hello Readers!

First thing I want to say is this chapter came out to five-thousand five-hundred fifty-six (5556) Words, so that was interesting. Never had a chapter end off on such a clean number like that.

Speaking of chapters, I recently went back and re-read the first few chapters of this story, pretty much just going to the end of the applicants' tournament stuff, and to be blunt, I need to fix them up. I really need to look myself in the mirror and ask why I'm so bad at correcting my own work. Luckily, now I have a beta-reader, so that's not an issue, but the scar of the first few chapters is still there, and I made a lot of very embarrassing mistakes. Like, to the point where I was actually flabbergasted at myself, especially since I already went back and edited them, only to find a storm of new typos and errors once more. I mean, I chastised myself for accidentally switching to third person at one point, despite the fact that I have literally never written a piece in third-person, and then what did I do? Did the same exact thing again two chapters later. Like, really Glace? What is wrong with me? Anywho, enough of my own inabilities, the point I'm trying to make is that I am going to go back and edit these previous chapter once again, but it most likely will not interfere with normal progression of this story. [Don't worry, I'll help Glace so that your wait isn't shortened] Finally, I want to thank all of you people who have sent me reviews, PMs, all that good stuff that makes me a very happy person! I want to thank my beta-reader for making sure I don't go into third person on accident! (8-BitUmbreon) I know this chapter is a little bit different than the previous ones, but hopefully you'll all still enjoy!

See You Next Chapter!


	25. First evaluation

**Naru**

Peaceful times are something to salvage, that's what I learned after we arrived back at the Nest from Myriad, and that's exactly what I've been doing for the past two weeks. Nothing bad or unexpected came up, so our lives as Ravens were back to the way they were supposed to be. Beforehand, as much as I loved my life at the Nest, I sort of began to take it for granted, being given a month of peace after our first mission spoiled me right away. Even if everything that happened at Myriad only took place over the course of two days, it still completely broke the calm life we had at the Nest. Now that I had that experience, I was going to take advantage of whenever we didn't have anything going on as much as I could.

After Kuro and I both passed out in the middle of our room and proceeded to wake up in an… interesting fashion due to us both falling asleep right next to each other, our lives continued as normal. The medicine that Vero gave us wore off by the time we woke up that morning, but neither of us felt nearly as bad as we did initially, despite soreness still being present. Honestly, soreness felt like a gift compared to the condition I was in after the battle we sustained, so it didn't bother me, not one bit. Both Kuro and I were well enough to continue our schedule of training with mentors and going on mostly delivery missions. However, that was going to change today, as we were assigned a bigger task than expected.

Essentially, four of us, Kuro, Kage, Vero, and myself, were going to travel to an already destroyed old town. Within this town was another group of four pokemon, who seem to claim that old place as their territory and attacked anyone who came too close. To me, it sounds like something a group of ferals would do, but these were not ferals. Luckily, they weren't Void members, and they didn't seem nearly as malicious or bloodthirsty. According to Core, they hadn't killed anyone, just hurt them a bit, forcing them away. This may have been the first mission we took that involved battle, but we were more than prepared. All of us have had some kind of experience battling Void members in the past, so going up against pokemon that weren't aiming to kill took away a majority of my concern regarding the mission. We still might get hurt, but not to the degree we have been in the past.

Not only that, but we had a leader coming with us, as for our first real task that is supposed to involve battling, we were to be evaluated. The higher-ups in the Nest needed to know what we were capable of when it came to that kind of task, so the four of us would be tested in a way. The leader coming with us? Kai.

I knew that I've had little to no interaction with the absol, but what I knew about Kai makes me anxious of any moves he may make. Past events have shown me that Kai is capable of helping others, even if it's a ruse of sorts, which was a comforting thought, but in no way confirmed anything. He was still a Void member, so we needed to be careful around him. Although, Kuro had talked to me about his mixed feelings when it came to Kai.

Since everything that happened in Myriad, Kuro, Shiro and I always sat in a small circle in the middle of the room to just talk to each other. Shiro is the one who came up with the idea, and I'm happy that she did, it made our communication as a team much better. Anyway, during one of these times, Kuro brought up Kai, and told me about some uncertainties he had about him. Namely, he wasn't too sure what the absol was really like in terms of his personality.

While he's at the Nest, he obviously needs to put on a facade, so it makes sense that, despite being a Void member, he'd act nice to the pokemon surrounding him and try his best to not raise suspicion. However, Kuro told me that a lot of Kai's actions feel… genuine, as if he's not faking. For example, he acts concerned about Kuro when they're mach-battling, if Kuro takes a hard hit, or Kai notices that Kuro is starting to slow down and tire out. He doesn't say anything, but it's clear from all of his actions that he's showing concern towards Kuro. Of course, this could all be a very well-acted facade, which Kuro acknowledged, but he's still unsure what Kai is really like. _I mean, if Kai killed one of Kuro's parents right in front of him and he's still considering that Kai might not be terrible, then he has to be pretty convinced. Hopefully Kai isn't just a master at deception._

Speaking of mentors, after the four of us are done with this mission, my mentor, Shard, will battle each of us one on one, in order to evaluate us in that kind of situation. So this way, we were being tested for how we work together out on a mission, and how we work when we're alone in an intense battle. We'll be given a number out of fifteen as a statistic to a bunch of basic attributes, and that will be used to determine what sort of tasks we'd be allowed to take on, and what ones would be either too easy or too difficult. I had no problem with this, but I was a little bit nervous to be tested. Only a little though. Like with the mission we're going on, this was nothing compared to our recent experiences. It was just the aspect of getting scored that was stressful, not the danger. Of course, I preferred the fear of a low score, rather than fear of whether I'm getting out alive or not.

I was walking towards the far east edge of the Nest, which wasn't a spot I visit very often. It was sort of out of the way from Kuro and I's room, and there wasn't much there to begin with, so I never found myself in the area unless I was aimlessly wandering. Waiting there should be Kage, Vero, and Kai. The three of them got everything they needed to ready beforehand, while Kuro and I were preoccupied with showing Shiro more areas around the Nest. Because of this, Kuro was finishing up our preparation in the store area of the Nest, and would meet with the rest of us at our departure point. I was going before him in order to notify the rest of them why we ended up being later than expected. Luckily, the abandoned town wasn't too far away, so leaving around noon was a viable option. Hopefully, the other three would forgive Kuro and I for poor planning. _Now that I think about it, we're kind of bad at planning things out…_

After a few more minutes of walking, I saw a small group in the distance waving towards me. Vero and Kage were standing next to each other, facing me with smiles, while Kai was standing off to the side. I waved back with one of my forepaws and began to walk towards them, returning their expressions. Like all other areas of the Nest, this one had a long stone path leading to the edge of the place, separated by a thick line of grass. The surrounding area shared the violet shine that the rest of the Nest had, looking pretty much identical to where Kuro and I lived, but with a few different twists and turns. Luckily, those turns weren't enough to get me lost, hopefully the same would be true for Kuro. His sense of direction has been getting better, but I still worry at times.

"Hey, Naru!" Kage greeted as I made it to the group. I nodded my head to him in acknowledgment.

"Hi! Sorry to keep you guys waiting, but we were showing Shiro a few more places she should know how to get to." Even if it made us late, I think Kuro and I had a good reason. Shiro lived here now, so she needed to know where everything important was.

"Not a problem. I don't think this will take all day anyway, based on everything we know so far." Vero said, placing one of her claws under her chin. "Then again, keeping on schedule isn't exactly my strong suit." Like Kuro has his problem with navigation, Vero had a hard time staying on a normal schedule for her different tasks. I think it partially had to do with the fact that she didn't have a mentor to teach her, other than Kuro giving a few tips here and there. Because she didn't have someone else's availability to think about, she did pretty much all of her scheduling on her own, which ended up being just a bit sloppy. Functional, but it had its issues.

"I'm sure we'll be fine." Kage pat Vero's back a few times. "All of us will be keeping track of what we'll be doing, so I'm sure our group will operate perfectly fine."

"Hopefully you're right. We've been getting back from missions way too late as of recent." Vero responded with a sigh. The two of them haven't been taking on particularly difficult tasks lately, but they've had to go to a lot of different places in one trip, which I'm sure was exhausting, and took a while.

"Well, we just need to drive a small group out of this abandoned place, right? If we think of an efficient way to do it beforehand, then it shouldn't take long." I said with assurance. Once Kuro made it here, I wanted to discuss what exactly we were going to do in order to get them to leave. I mean, if we could just ask them nicely, that would be great, but I doubt it. _Although, that would be a lot faster than having to fight it out…_

"While we're waiting here, do either of you have any ideas regarding how we can approach this? I doubt anything is going to be accomplished peacefully." Kage asked among the group. I tilted my head and looked up into the clouded sky. The sun has been hiding out a lot lately, and the weather has been decreasing rapidly, or so I've heard. When you're a ice type, cold air just kind of flows by you, feeling no less warm than any other day. Because of this, I didn't really react to the change in the air all around me, but most of the other pokemon did. Kuro and I always wore scarves as an apparel choice, not to warm up, but the abundance of scarves within the Nest as of late keyed me in on the lowering temperatures. Well, that and the comments from all of the Ravens roaming around.

"I think we need someone to lure them away from wherever they're waiting." Kage and I looked at Vero. "Another thing I figured out about this group is their way of rejecting pokemon from their 'territory.' They like to fight in one particular part, and they have specific protocols for said area. If we can manage to lure them away from that part of the town and into another, then we'd have a much easier time." I thought about Vero's suggestion, which didn't seem to have many problems. The only problem I could think of was why nobody had done this before. It seemed like such a clear way to take them off-guard, but then again, there's no guarantee that it hasn't been tried before, and it just didn't work. But, along with that, there was one other thing. _How would we lure them in the first place? That seems difficult if they work so well in the area they'll be waiting in. Not to mention, won't they notice that they're being led?_

The conversation continued, each one of us stating problems with any ideas that were brought up. All of the possible ways to approach the situation seemed to have way more issues than our initial one, making them seem impractical, but we still had no idea if we would even be able to pull off the first thought. I mean, tricking them into changing locations was one thing, but actually doing it was a whole other ordeal. In order to get all of them away, then we would probably need one of us to do it, as oppose to all of us as a group. There were too many variables to keep track of at the same time if we did it as a group, so we'd need one of us to be bait, while the others prepared to ambush them in another area. However, that also came with risks, as the plan would call for one of us to last against more than one opponent, which would be rather difficult to do. Even with this in mind, we couldn't think of anything else tangible. _Have we ever even had a plan for anything..? We usually just act on instinct… Maybe that's why we need to be evaluated in the first place…_

Our small group continued discussing possible plans or strategies we could use if we had to run them out of the abandoned place. We still wanted to ask first, just to make sure we're not battling for no reason. Again, I highly doubted that just asking them to leave would work, but it was worth a shot. Then again, what would we even be evaluated on if we just asked them to leave and they did? _Maybe… we'd be graded on how we handled the mission..?_ A few minutes of somewhat futile planning went by, and next to no real progress was made. However, we did see a familiar umbreon walking towards us in the distance, which brought a smile to my face. _Looks like you didn't get lost, good for you!_

"Hey Kuro!" Kage shouted out as Kuro continued walking towards us. He let a small smile creep onto his face and lifted one of his forepaws to wave, before picking up his pace and reaching us. He pushed his scarf a little bit further up his face, probably because of the cold air.

"Hi everyone. Sorry for being late, I got held up a bit trying to buy supplies." Kuro informed. It wasn't really a surprise, the store area was always crowded, especially around morning and noon.

"It's no big deal, we had some things to talk about anyway." Vero responded. "We'll inform you of everything on the way to this destroyed town." Kuro nodded his head. Collectively, the other three pokemon in the group let out a breath, creating a misty cloud in front of their faces. Once he realized everyone was here, Kai finally joined the rest of us, which made me tense up a little bit.

"We should get going now, especially if you don't want to be back late." Kai said in a monotone voice. I couldn't read him at all. He didn't sound one-hundred percent emotionless like the flygon I spoke to a while back, but whatever feelings that were present definitely took a back seat.

At first, we all just wordlessly followed Kai as we were leaving the Nest. I guess none of us were used to him being around, especially considering all of the information we had that he didn't know about. Kuro and I both knew that Kai wasnot only a Raven, but a Void member, and both Vero and Kage knew that Kai had a lot of knowledge that he shouldn't have. Because of this, none of us really felt comfortable around Kai, despite him just silently leading us to our destination. After a little bit of walking, Kage, Vero and I explained everything we put together to Kuro. He brought up pretty much all of the same possible problems that our plan had, but also realized that we didn't have very much of a choice.

We ended up deciding on our first idea, assuming that asking them kindly to leave wouldn't work, which it wasn't going to. One of us was going to lead the four pokemon into a different part of the town where they didn't have as much of an advantage as they did where they usually drove pokemon away. As for which one of us was going to play bait, it looked like Kuro had the best shot. We'll know for sure after we get individually evaluated by Shard, but it seemed like Kuro lacked in offense quite a bit. His attacks were pretty light compared to the rest of us, at least, his attacks other than whatever he hit Grace with when she had us cornered. Plus, his recoil made it hard for him to use any of his really damaging attacks without major risk. However, what he lacked in offense was more than made up for when it came to stamina. Kuro could do a lot, and I mean a lot of moving around quickly and intensely without winding himself. This would be good for getting away from pokemon he might be trying to lure. Not to mention, if he really needs to, he could use his tendrils to make his ability to get away much faster and more fluent. He was easily the best candidate for being bait, even if the title was less than enticing.

Vero had a map of the destroyed town, on it she marked where this group usually greeted the pokemon trying to take the ruined town from them, as well as where she wanted us to ambush them. We didn't know how large the area this group had the advantage in was, so we played it safe and made out ambush point a pretty large distance away from the group's assumed location. While this was safe for the plan, it did make Kuro's job harder, and even though he said he was okay with it, I couldn't help but feel bad for increasing the expectancy of what he needed to do.

The rest of us were to wait in position to catch the group off guard. Kage and I were stationed at opposite ends of a building that had been knocked down, while Vero was overhead on one of the few structures that was still standing. Kage and I were supposed to rush at the enemies right after Kuro managed to get them close enough, and then Vero was going to leap down and help us out, hopefully pinching the group between us. Kuro may need a moment to catch his breath after he makes it back, but once he does, we'll have a four on four battle, one without them having a territory advantage. That was the closest to a fair confrontation we were going to have, but there was still the matter of not knowing how strong they were. _For once… we actually have an organized plan!_

This was the first time we took on a mission that was perceived as 'difficult' right up front. The rest of our challenges came from obstacles not really related to our overall task, but this time was different. We were facing a challenge head-on, and it wasn't one that was life-threatening, just a test. Honestly, after thinking about the plan we came up with and considering that this wouldn't end with someone coming back with broken bones, I was excited. This was the first time I was really pumped up for completing a task at the Nest, and I wasn't going to waste this feeling. After all, we still needed a good evaluation. With a giddy smile on my face, I walked with the rest of our group, excitedly staring at the dusty structure that was coming into my view.

* * *

 **Kuro**

I walked through a wasteland of broken down buildings and dust, on my way to the far east end of it. The ground under me reminded me of a desert, except, instead of sand caught in my paws, it was orange-colored dirt caked to them. This place clearly hadn't been through renovation of any kind in a very long while, as not only were most of the structures, well, not standing, but the entire place was covered in dust. You'd think that if a group of pokemon were holding this place, they would still poke around a bit, but by the looks of it, nothing of the sort took place.

I memorized the map that Vero showed us for the most part, at least the important sections of it. I knew how to get to where this group allegedly was, and I also knew how to get to our rendezvous point where we would ambush them to the best of our ability. I was sort of worried that I wouldn't be able to successfully lure the group away from their home area, as that would not only affect me, but Kage, Vero, and Naru. This would go down as a failed mission, as well as hurt our evaluation from Kai. I felt… just a bit pressured, but I was able to calm myself down with deep inhales of the frigid air around me. I didn't mind cold weather too much. I picked up quite a few survival skills while I was on my own, one of which was being able to deal with any sort of weather. Finding warmth in the middle of a dark forest wasn't the easiest thing in the world unless you want to start a forest fire, so I relied on building a resistance to the weather that pierced through the warmth of my fur. It took quite a while, but I managed to adapt to weather changes as they came and went. I had to admit though, having a scarf made everything a lot easier.

After a bit more traversal through the broken down town, I reached the point in which this group allegedly greeted pokemon and attempted to run them out. I took a deep breath before heading further into the area, keeping track of my surroundings. Most of the knocked down buildings were made out of bricks, and others were made out of glass, at least the exterior was. Luckily, the broken glass didn't make its way to the circular clearing of red dirt I was standing in. Nature was a beautiful thing, but it could be brutal to places like this, which are left behind. Half of the buildings were buried, another fourth of them leaning down, barely standing, and the remainder, while up and off the ground, had numerous holes and damage to the whole structure. This place was messed up beyond belief, but there was nothing wrong with the environment itself, so it could probably be renovated. It would take a lot of effort, but it was salvageable. _Maybe that's why pokemon are trying to take this place back from this group in the first place._

I was just about to make the mistake of settling in with my thoughts, but I heard something scrape against one of the knocked-over buildings from about ten feet away from me, to which I jumped back and got into a battle stance. I already felt my heart rate begin to pick up, despite the fact that I haven't even seen whatever made that noise yet. I backed away from the source of the sound, preparing myself for someone to jump out from behind it and attack. My guard was up, and I wasn't going to be surprised by anything. At least, not anything combat related. Behind the building, I heard a lot of whispering, quiet whispering, but I could tell that it held an irritated tone. After the whispering picked up more, I heard a loud smack, as if someone got slapped. That was followed by a grunt, and then the noises calmed down. _What in the world…_

I was about to back up more, but then I violated my own state of mind and my body jumped as a lurantis hopped up from behind the knocked over building. They locked eyes with me for a second, and then turned their body to the side on one leg, sticking one of their blades into the air, as if they were posing. A second later, out came a crobat, who flew a few circles around the lurantis before positioning themselves just barely off of the ground a few feet to the right of the lurantis, pointing their wings towards the empty space in between them. Right after that, a poliwrath jumped up too, and stood just a few inches in front of the other two, crouching down into a position like they were about to charge forward. Finally, a golisopod climbed over the knocked-over structure and stood behind the other three, spreading their arms far apart, able to embrace the others if they wished to. I just stood still, not moving at all. I wasn't really afraid, but that most certainly caught me off-guard, just as I thought I was prepared for anything. These pokemon looked like they were setting up for a picture, not like they wanted to fight.

"Okay!" The poliwrath yelled in a gruff voice before looking up at me.

"Now we're all here!" The crobat yelled out.

"You'll be cornered!" The lurantis shouted.

"Do you want to challenge us?" The golisiopod said rather calmly. All of the others shouted, but he just spoke normally.

I stared at the group of four, baffled by what I was looking at. I was just… confused. All other pokemon who I've battled in the past have either attacked me right off the bat, or prepared themselves to counter, but these pokemon were posing in front of me, and recited some kind of organized speech. I snapped myself out of the small trance I brought my mind into and looked back at the group, but not in a battle stance. For some reason, I felt like they weren't going to sucker punch me. I took in a breath, and tried to communicate with them.

"Umm… Are you the group that keeps on running pokemon out of here?" The golisiopod put on a smirk, but didn't break the pose that the four were holding.

"Ah. You're here about that. I should've figured." The rest of the group put on the same smirk that the golisiopod had. "That's exactly who we are. But you must be wondering: Who are we?" _Wait… What..? I'm confused. Didn't you just say…_

Without hesitating, the lurantis of the group turned her body towards me and crossed her blades in front of her face. The crobat spun in circles and then faced me while much higher in the air than before. The poliwrath rose his hands into the air and curled them up into fists, and the golisiopod held the same position that he had previously. Each of them took in a deep breath.

"WE ARE THE FOUR SAINTS!" They all yelled simultaneously.

I flinched from the sudden volume change, but then just looked at the group, still posing in front of me. They were staring at me expectantly, as if waiting for a reaction, but I just tilted my head in confusion. _Who… Are these pokemon..?_ I didn't know how to feel about them in the slightest, so I just stared forward at the group, waiting for them to do something. After an admittedly awkward few minutes of wordless staring, the lurantis' eye twitched, and she let out a sigh. She abandoned the pose the four had and walked next to the crobat, who had lowered himself much closer to the ground. She began to glare at him.

"I told you that name was ridiculous!" She shouted, another increase in volume that I wasn't expecting. She took one of her blades and smacked the crobat over the head with the dull side of it. He looked like he suppressed a shout, and then slammed into the ground. He looked back up at the lurantis.

"S-Sorry Dice… I thought it was fine…" He croaked, obviously a little bit stunned by the sudden smack to the ground.

"Now now, that was a little bit harsh, don't you think?" The poliwrath said, also breaking from his pose and walking towards the crobat and lurantis, whose name seemed to be Dice.

"Well, our name was supposed to sound threatening and intimidate others, not send them into a blank stare of confusion!" Dice yelled, pointing one of her blades towards me. "I mean, look at him! He's not even fazed!"

"I don't think the name is the problem, I think it was the delivery." The crobat slowly rose up off the ground to meet with his colleagues. "I mean, we didn't exactly take him by surprise like we wanted to…"

"And whose fault was that?" Dice looked back at the poliwrath, who nervously chuckled.

"I just tripped over myself, alright? Hitting me over the head wasn't necessary. You probably attracted more attention with that than me shuffling around!" The poliwrath retorted.

"Even so, I wouldn't have had to do that if you didn't trip in the first place Al!" Dice yelled back.

"How can you be so aggressive Dice? It was just a few simple mistakes…" The crobat chimed bashfully.

"Oh, shut it, Soar." Dice dismissed him. "You didn't even remember what you were supposed to do for our pose."

"I didn't understand what Gyro told me to do… and I thought you were supposed to show me exactly how he wanted me to fit into that pose." Dice looked visibly flustered by this comment.

"I assumed that you'd get it on your own! All you had to do was fit into the middle of all of us, not fly thirty feet into the air!" Dice looked like she was about to clock the crobat, Soar in the head again. Right before she made contact, the golidiopod, Gyro, grabbed her claw.

"Now isn't the time to be fighting among yourselves like children. Remember, we have a challenger here." Gyro shook his head slowly and backed up behind the other three, while they faced me.

I was still just staring at them with my head tilted. I didn't know how to react to them at all. I mean, if they were the ones who had been driving pokemon away from this place, than I was expecting something miles among miles away from the group I was standing before. I certainly got the whole 'not killers' vibe from them, but other than that, I didn't know what to think. How was I supposed to? I said I'd be ready for anything, yet here I was, completely baffled by this group of four pokemon. Just as I was organizing my head to say something, Gyro began to slowly walk towards me. He stopped about ten feet away.

"So about my question earlier, are you here to fight us?" He calmly asked. _He seems like their leader…_

"You're not entirely wrong." I responded, not feeling quite as dumbfounded as before. "I'm here to try and get you to leave this place. It can still be salvaged and become a functioning town." Gyro just smiled and continued staring at me.

"You're far from the first pokemon to ask that, and we'll gladly leave once someone can take the four of us out." He looked around at the ocean of collapsed and barely standing buildings surrounding the clearing-type area we were standing in. "I guess they didn't tell you about the way this works. We agreed to leave, but only once someone could beat us in a battle. That was our condition, and it still hasn't been met."

"But, you're sort of holding this town down right now. It could become something great, as long as you give others the chance to improve it."

"I'm sure it can, but there's something you should know about us." Gyro glanced at the other three pokemon behind him before looking at me again. "We love to battle others. It's such a thrilling experience, and we all want to salvage this as much as possible. You know the best way to get new challengers? Hold an area like this, and openly state that anyone could have it, so long as we're beaten." He chuckled. "So many pokemon have come and challenged us, and some have actually given some great battles, but none have managed to beat us yet. This is the perfect way to fuel our need to find pokemon to battle!" _So they just want to fight with others for fun..?_

"So that's the only reason why you won't leave this place? It's not some territorial thing?" I curiously asked. I thought that the reason they didn't want to leave was that they viewed this place as their property, not as a hotspot for picking innocent fights.

"Of course not. We said that in order to draw more pokemon in. Can you really blame us though? Have you never had a battle that you just never wanted to end? Haven't you ever felt that kind of exhilaration?" Gyro seemed to excite himself as he talked. As much as I wanted to try and see things from his perspective, I really didn't have the same feelings when it came to fighting. A lot of pokemon saw it as a sport, but seeing as I spent a large amount of time just fighting against ferals for survival, it was hard to get excited from a fight. The closest I got to that was when I battled Kage for the first time in the applicants' tournament, and even then I think I just got caught up in the moment.

"Not… particularly." I shook my head. "To answer your question then, I guess I am here to challenge you four." Gyro smirked.

"Judging by the symbol on the side of our body, I can guess why. Are you the only one here? Doesn't seem like a fair confrontation."

"We'll see about that." I crouched back down into my previous battling position. I also realized how cocky I just sounded, and while that's not exactly what my intention was, I ignored my poor delivery.

"I see." Gyro backed up behind the other three in front of me. "Well then, let's stop wasting time. Dice. Al. Soar. Drive him away." The three pokemon that were just commanded to attack leaned forward, and I tensed up. _Here we go…_

"Finally!" I was rushed by a shouting lurantis, who crossed her blades and swung them forward. I barely ducked under one slash, and threw myself to the side, avoiding her second blade. She turned and smirked at me. "It's been a little bit since we had a challenge, don't you dare disappoint! I'm reeeaaallllyyy eager to beat someone up!" She pointed her blades at me. _She reminds me of another aggressive pokemon… Just not quite as sadistic._

"Watch your back!" I attempted to react to the shouting from behind me, but a crobat slammed their body into the back of my neck, shooting me straight towards Dice. I saw her draw one of her blades back, ready to slash me. Right as she was about to make contact, I turned my body to the right, making the blade just scathe me. She quickly forced her other blade towards me, but I was ready for it. I caught the blade by biting down on it, and then swung my neck around and threw Dice at Soar, nearly making them collide. Dice quickly regained her footing and both her and Soar looked at me with smiles. I took a deep breath to recover from the first instance of combat, and readied myself again. _I need to lead them away from here, the question is, how? How can I lure them without being obvious in the process?_ I quickly processed a few ways I might be able to change our location without looking like I was specifically trying to do so. _Looks like I might have to pull some of my new tricks._

The two who attacked me earlier both launched themselves at me again. I extended my two large tendrils, feeling them erode from the side of my body with much less discomfort than usual. I blocked both Dice and Soar's path with one of them, staggering the two backwards. I used the opportunity to slam my other tendril to the ground, launching myself into the air. Soar attempted to chase me down, but before I started losing altitude, I shot a shadow ball at him, knocking him back towards the ground. The attack also pushed me back a little bit, sending me closer to the edge of the round clearing we were all in. Once gravity pulled me back to the ground at a high speed, I broke my fall using both of my tendrils, angering the nerves embedded within them. After flinching a little bit, I took a second to find my four opponents, not retracting my tendrils, as it was likely I'd need them again shortly. I spotted Dice coming in my direction and Soar quickly recovering from me sending him into the ground. However, I couldn't find Gyro or Al anywhere. That was worrying, but Dice was closing in on me too fast to give me time to think about my concerns.

Instead of waiting to counter attack, I rushed towards her and tried to headbutt the center of her body, but she slipped out of the way last second and swung the back end of one of her blades into my spine. I slid in the direction I was facing, and Dice followed up by running at me again. I was about to use my tendrils to escape, but I felt my body get slammed into the ground, sending my nerves into a pulsing ache. Soar had plummeted onto me from behind, I lost track of him, and I was punished for it. Dice than collided her knee with my chin, launching me up into the air and a decent distance away. I used my tendrils to properly land, and then I shook off any pain that the two attacks gave me. Because of the direction I was launched in, I realized that I was close to the edge of the of circle clearing, and almost in the main portion of the broken down town.

I took note of my position, and hit the ground in front of me with my tendrils, sending me away from the circle clearing. I then flipped my body around to face the other direction. I was thinking about what I would do once we were out of this open area, but I was distracted by Dice launching herself up right in front of me. She smirked and prepared to send me back to the dirt, but I reacted fast enough and grabbed her upper body with a tendril, and she was the one who got sent back down to the ground. _It looked like she really wanted to keep me in this clearing, so is this 'their area?'_

I looked ahead of where I was descending, and took note of a broken part of a slanted building in front of me. I latched a tendril onto the edges of the hole, and then pulled myself into the building. As soon as my paws touched the solid flooring, I coughed a few times, inhaling a ton of dust. I looked around to see nothing but a very spacious rectangular room. There was nothing in it, other than the blue tiled floor and the white walls and ceiling, the room was blank and dark. I retracted my tendrils and then began to head to other side of the interior, where, much to my convenience, another hole in the wall was present. This gave me a way to keep up my pace, so I began to jog towards it, but nearly tripped when I felt my recoil kick in. I managed to stay standing on all fours, but I stopped moving for a few seconds, recovering from the sudden pain spike. It was a bit worse than usual, seeing as I used my tendrils for a pretty decent amount of time, but it still only lasted about a minute before slowly fading away. I may have been more comfortable handling my tendrils now, but the recoil was still the same as ever.

I ran to the other exit of the broken structure I was in, and then jumped out of it, landing in a place that looked a lot more like a path than a clearing. I would say it was a road, but the ground was made out of orange dirt, so it was sort of hard to determine what exactly this area used to be. On either side of the stretch of land laid more slanted buildings, along with a few that were already on the ground. On one of the knocked-over buildings was directly under the hole that I had just jumped out of, and I ran over and stood behind it, wanting to be in a secure spot while I thought about what I was going to do next. I relaxed my body, cutting off a little bit of the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

 _Okay… I know the layout of this place. I know a route that will bring me to everyone else, but I'm not sure if the path will be accessible, not with four pokemon chasing me down. They're too open, so I need to think of a better way to get over there._ I looked up into the somewhat cloudy sky, coming up with an idea. _Maybe I'd have a better time if I went over the rooftops…_

As I was considering more options, I heard the sounds of movement from right above me, in the building I just came out of. I assumed it was Dice and Soar, but I still had no idea where the other two went. That was eating away at me, distracting me from escaping the lurantis and crobat. What distracted me even more was Dice yelling in the ruined structure, her voice echoing from the spacious environment. Right after the yelling concluded, I heard a loud smack, which also echoed, although this one sounded like it repeated itself throughout the whole town. This was further followed by a shriek, sounding like it came from Soar. _I almost feel bad for him right now…_

I shook my head to re-focus myself on finding a way to get onto higher ground without attracting the attention of Dice and Soar, one could jump pretty efficiently, and the other had wings, so altitude alone was not enough to get away from them. I gazed not too far away from the cover I was in, and saw another knocked-over structure, this one leaning close to another slanted building, which was leaning on a stable one. _If I use those, than I can get up quietly, and I won't have to-_

I heard shuffling from behind me and turned around, only to get the wind ripped out of my body, and I was sent back into the air, crashing into a sturdy building across from my previous cover. I fell to the ground, landing on my paws, and then looked back at where I was just standing while huffing to recover. Right where I was hiding a second ago stood Al, and he had a jolly expression in his eyes.

"You didn't think I just bailed away from the battle, did you?" He walked past the building I had just been hiding behind and rose his fists. "Although, I'll give you props. Most pokemon don't make it out of that wide space, not even the ones that give us difficulty." He chuckled for a little bit while we stared each other down. _So he's the plan for anyone who makes it out of that area… I knew losing him was going to come back and bite me._

Just after Al stopped talking to me, two of his allies dropped down from above. One stood next to him, the other flew slightly above the ground, with a wing angled to rub his head. Al and Dice smiled at me, but the crobat just whimpered. Who I assumed to be their leader still wasn't here, and like before, that worried me, but I couldn't focus on that. Not with the other three right in front of me. _Now I've done it… How can I get any further now?_ I took a moment to prepare myself to get moving again, and observed what exactly I was up against right now. _Dice is really quick on the ground, Soar is fast in the air, and Al packs a punch._ It was clear that I couldn't outrun the lurantis or the crobat, I may have been able to get away from Al if he was the only one here, but that wasn't the case. Plus, I needed to look out for him. He snuck up on me really well, and that punch rattled my bones. I needed to do something to gain ground over them, but I wasn't sure how to exactly. _Unless… I try something new._

"Time for you to give in!" The lurantis dashed at me, and the crobat took to the skies, also rushing towards me. Al wasn't too far behind, but he was a few feet back from the other two. I took note of their position, and then focused. The rings on my legs lost their color, being replaced with a black to match my fur. The same happened with the ones on my ears and tail, but not my forehead. _As soon as they get closer…_ The two faster pokemon were now about ten feet away from me.

"Thanks for grouping up!" I leaned my head forward right before Dice could swing at me, and Soar could try and ram me. I put my mind on the only ring I still had visible on my body. The ring began to lightly glow for a second, and after that second passed, I released a massive burst of light from my remaining ring. Dice immediately shielded her eyes with one of her blades, and Soar spun out of control in the air, flying into one of the not-so sturdy buildings behind me. Al was affected by the light too, but not nearly as much, because he was farther away. He blocked the light for only a second, before looking at me again. The rest of my rings regained their golden color, and I lowered my body, lightly smiling. _Thanks for the inspiration, Naru._

I lunged passed Dice and slammed her back with my tail, sending her into the same building that Soar flew into. Al then ran at me and attempted to punch me again, but now that I could actually see him coming, I was able to react. I dodged two swings from him, and then rammed my head into his stomach, making him slide back a few feet, but not doing much damage. He recovered and then smiled.

"Your tactics don't matter if you can't hurt me at all!" He ran at me again, this time opening his mouth and shooting off two spheres of water at me. I extended my tendrils and knocked them both away. He ran at me again, and his fists began to brightly glow. He swung at me, but I caught his fist with one of my tendrils, although it hurt. A lot. He then did the same with his other fist, which I also caught with my other tendril, to which I grunted from the wave of pain sent to me. Al lowered his eyelids and struggled against the grip I had, but I made sure he wouldn't get loose that easily. _Time to counter!_ I gave him a similar smile to the one he gave me earlier.

"Is this better?" I released one of his fists, and his momentum carried him to inaccurately swing past me, where I ducked below his arm and ended up behind him. I released his other fist and then quickly smacked the side of his body with a tendril, putting him off-balance. I used the opportunity to hit him up in the air with my other tendril, and then connect a shadow ball with him before he landed, launching him into the same building the rest of his team was hugging.

I didn't wait to see their reactions, I instead used my tendrils to hastily get to the group of collapsed buildings that were knocked down like a staircase, and then brought myself to the top of a building. I took a deep breath and ran across the roof, which felt like smacking my paws against stone. Right before I made it to the edge, I slammed a tendril on the top of the roof under me, making me wince, but sending me far down the next path I needed to run down. I gave myself a balanced landing, and then kept running down the would-be road. _Now I have some freedom._

I continued to move towards my destination.

* * *

Hello Readers!

I told myself that I wasn't going to take more than seven days to write a chapter, and it only took me three of them to break that… I'm sorry. With thanksgiving and all of that going on, I had a lot to do, and even now I have to help a distant family member move, which has also kept me quite busy, and isn't even over yet. But no more excuses, I promise that I'll try my best to keep on schedule going forward! Also, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. I know it's late, but it's the thought that counts, right? :p

I want to thank all of you who have sent me PMs, reviews, and all that good stuff. I actually got a lot of PMs specifically between this chapter and the last, and I appreciate all of them! I don't think I've ever said this in a chapter before, but I will indeed respond to every review and PM that I get, so don't hesitate! Finally, I want to thank my beta-reader for improving these chapters before they go out! (8-BitUmbreon) [^_^]

See You Next Chapter!


	26. End of evaluation one

Naru

My heart pounded as I hid behind a building that had been knocked down some time ago. It looked like it was made up of bricks, and since it was on the ground, it was more of a wall rather than a building. I was on one far end of it, and Kage was on the other. In front of us, there was another building, but this one was colored white and still standing. Vero was on top of said building, most likely waiting near the center of the roof in order to not get spotted. All of us are in the position we need to be, now we just need to wait. So far everything went okay, from the trip here, to setting up in this area, which was a good thing to be sure, but my excitement from earlier slowly transformed into nervousness as soon as soon as Kuro left to try and lure the group we needed to make leave this town over here. I mean, there was four of them, and one of him, so I was inclined to be worried, right? I'm not overthinking things, right?

It hasn't even been that long since we arrived, but I couldn't help but think up every possible thing that could possibly screw this up. Of course, I had no way to prevent any of this now, but on our way here, we pretty much went over what would be difficult, and what would be easy. The latter wasn't a very long list, but we salvaged what we could get. Namely, setting up our positions was fairly simple, all we needed to do was find a good spot and take cover. That was the easy part, the hard part was… well… everything else.

None of us even knew the species of the pokemon we were going to have to go up against. No, actually, Kai knew their species, but didn't want to tell us because that's wasn't a luxury that we're going to have in any mission we go on, or at least, not many of them. Plus, that was just another skill of ours he needed to evaluate; how we react to whatever pokemon decide to come at us.

Right now, Kai was standing on a much taller building than the rest a decent distance from us, but within his eyesight. I'm pretty sure whatever building he was on had to be a skyscraper of some kind before this town was abandoned. It was double the size of any other ones we found. At least, any other ones that were still standing. I looked behind where Kage and I were standing, and there was a broken down wooden structure blocking what used to be a road. More accurately, it was multiple wooden structures, because there was no way that one building had enough debris to cover an entire road and also stretch so far into the air. On the other side of us, there was a decent stretch of the same road, but it had two turns at the end of it, one going left, the other going right. On both sides of the road, there were plenty of barely standing buildings made out of bricks, or some kind of material I didn't know. It felt like stone, but I knew it wasn't. It didn't really matter though, just sparked my curiosity. I needed some kind of distraction…

I took a deep breath, calming myself down. It's fine… everything will go according to plan, and we'll successfully complete this mission. I mean, come on Naru! We're not even at risk of death here, and you're acting like we're sieging the Void, get yourself together! I shook my head and re-focused on peeking around the cover I was behind and looking at the roads that split at the end. That's where Kuro is going to come from, and I'm sure he'll get here perfectly intact. No need to worry… no need to worry…

My body jumped when I saw a figure walk around the corner of the roads that split apart. I was about to be ecstatic, happy that Kuro completed his part of the mission, but that quickly vanished when I saw that the pokemon walking down this road was not an umbreon, they were much larger, and didn't have black fur, but a mineral-type silver body. A golisiopod, nothing like an umbreon. I cast Kage a glance, and he responded with a look of confusion, but the two of us still stared at the large bug walking closer and closer to where we were hiding. They didn't seem to notice us, but they kept walking forward, until they made it to what was almost the exact center of where Kage, Vero and I were planning our ambush. I tried suppress my raising worry of who this could be. I also numbed my mind completely, because if I didn't certain possibilities would pop into my head, which would just make me worry more and more. As the golisiopod stood still in the center of all three of us, they just looked forward, seemingly at nothing. After a couple of seconds of heavy silence, I heard them clear their throat.

"Alright, I know that umbreon wasn't alone, so why don't you show yourselves? You're far from the first pokemon to take refuge in this exact spot, so why don't you just save me the trouble of bringing you all out?" Despite talking loudly, the voice that came off of this golisiopod was calm, like he didn't have a worry in the world. I only thought about this for a second though, because processing what he said effectively reinvigorated my mind. Wait, so he found Kuro? And Kuro isn't here? Does that mean…

"If none of you want to come out, I'll have to introduce myself to you directly." The voice coming from the mouth of the golisopod still sounded calm and collected. Kage and I cast each other a nervous glance, like we were considering whether actually coming out of hiding was a good idea or not. The two of us wordlessly decided to stay back, hoping that Vero made the same decision. We couldn't directly communicate with her, so we just needed to have faith right now. He could be bluffing… right? We haven't made a sound, so everything he's saying is nothing more than a ploy, right? A few moments of absolute silence passed. If I focused hard enough, I could probably hear my own heartbeat in this atmosphere. No wind blew over the area, no steps were taken, just suffocating silence passed. That is, until I heard a light sigh.

"Okay then… I hope you like meeting new pokemon." I heard more footsteps, this time approaching the area we chose to locate our ambush. After about fifteen steps were taken, they stopped, and I tensed up. "Hopefully I can make a good first impression…" He's bluffing… right?

The quiet wasteland we all hid in was interrupted, and replaced by the sound of a loud crash, and the crushing of stone. From the empty space in between Kage and I, the wall had been broken through, and the golisopod that spoke with such a calm demeanor was now standing right in front of me. He reached both of his arms out on either side of him, coming after Kage and I with impressive speed. I barely ducked under his hand, but because of Kage's larger stature, he couldn't do the same, and took a head-on collision from the now attacking pokemon. Kage slide across the ground a decent distance, but had braced himself before the impact, so he took less damage than he could've. The golisopod look back and forth at the two of us, smiling.

"Told you I know you were there. You think this area has been ignored by all of our other challengers? You're too predictable." He formed a ball of water in both of his hands and fired one off at Kage and I, who were still on either side of him. I canceled his attack out by shooting off an ice shard, and Kage launched a bolt of electricity through the one aimed at him. The bolt then connected with the golisopod, but even as it engulfed his entire body, he barely flinched. Granted, Kage did have to shoot that off without much of a charge, but it still should have done something, more than what the result was.

He looked as if he was about to turn and rush at Kage, judging by his mannerisms, so I quickly sent a sheet of ice along the ground, which thinly froze the golisopod's foot. Only one of them, but I was able to throw him off balance, as well as stop him from rushing Kage. I decided to keep my distance and started to back up while readying myself to shoot off an ice beam in order to stop him from moving, but he broke out of the ice that was surrounding his foot and then ran at me, rather than Kage. He slammed his left arm into me, which made me fly back into the middle of the road we were hiding out in front of. His diamond-like body slamming into me caused my body to ache, and the impact with the ground intensified that. Ignoring the pain, I flipped my body over and stood back up on all fours, shaking off the impact. The golisopod didn't push after me, nor Kage, he just stood still with the same smile on his face.

"You know, if you battle as predictably as that, you won't get too far with me." Kage and I both stood still, just staring at him as he spoke. Neither of us were prepared for this battle, it heavily deviated from our initial plan, and really caught us off-guard. Because of this, Kage and I didn't know what to do, and we were both trying to think of something on the spot. This is not my area of expertise…

"I'm sorry, did I get you that badly? Just standing there isn't going to do anything. You need to act, otherwise no progress will come out of this." Neither Kage nor I moved, but it wasn't because we weren't thinking straight anymore, that was a moment of weakness and nothing more. Now we had something to wait for. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, we'd be back into a proper state of mind. I regretfully pushed my worrying thoughts about Kuro to the side and waited for our opportunity. Any second now…

"Guess I was wrong to think all of you would provide a challenge. Maybe the umbreon was just a fluke too." I flinched at the mention of Kuro, but didn't lose my focus, because I was about to need it. The golisopod reared back one of his hands, and started to form another ball of water, but he didn't finish it. Before the entirety of the attack could take shape, his arm was dragged down to the ground by a mass of small black streams of matter. Next, his other arm was grabbed, and was subsequently dragged down with the first one. The golisopod was now being held in place, and a zoroark dropped from the sky behind him to do so. He turned his head back, to try and catch a glimpse of what exactly had just happened to him, but he couldn't quite see Vero smirking behind him.

"Still think we're predictable?" I could tell Vero was struggling to hold him in place, so I knew it was time to act, and it looked like Kage did too. I used the opportunity to run up in front of the golisopod, and shot off a shadow ball at point blank range right in his midsection. It looked like his body tensed from the attack, but he didn't let out any sort of pained noise, he just chuckled. He then managed to break Vero's hold, and rose his arms above his head, swinging Vero into the air due to her connection to him with her tendrils. She quickly detached them, flying off into the air, heading straight at one of the larger brick buildings. I worried about her for a split second, but she gracefully put her feet to the wall of the structure, and then pushed off of it towards the ground, flipping forward to land on her hands, and then flipping again to stand normally. She's so acrobatic…

I jumped backwards to create some distance between the golisopod and I, landing a few feet in front of Vero. Our opponent looked as if he was about to charge at us, but instead, he only took one step before widening his eyes and twitching uncontrollably. The sounds of shocks and sparks filled the air, and a light stream of electricity connected the golisopod and Kage. The blast was constant, but it didn't seem to be hurting him at all, just keeping him still again. Kage had his eyes locked on the back of the golisopod, as if thinking that he forgot about the luxray not too far behind him.

"He's stuck there! Go in for more attacks!" Kage yelled, keeping his focus on holding our opposition down. Vero rushed in front of me and drew out two large, translucent claws that engulfed her normal ones. The dark-shaded weapons looked intimidating and dangerous, but I think that's what she was going for when she learned how to do that. She crossed them in front of her and made it to the golsiopod, but his expression didn't look panicked at all. Vero was about to slash her claws across the golsiopod's chest, which wouldn't be lethal, she knew how to hold herself back, but it would hurt. Right as she was about to release her attack, our opponent smirked.

He managed to break free of the electric prison he was stuck in and then forced both of his hands over Vero's claws, blocking her out completely. He tightened his grip on her, to which she flinched. He then brought her body up and threw it in the other direction of me, colliding her and Kage together. The two rolled over each other a little bit before both being on the ground, Vero hanging over Kage's back. He then turned back to me.

"Maybe I passed judgement a little bit too early." He ran towards me, and his hands began to glow. I crouched down and readied myself. He took four swipes at me, and I managed to duck or strafe around all of them. Finally, he tried to slam me into the ground, but I sidestepped the attack, and got behind him. I lept onto his back, which felt harder than metal. Like all other golisopods, the arms connecting his hands and his body were pretty thin, and weren't nearly as dense as the rest of his body. At least, I think so. Using the possibly false information I had, I let out a frigid breath, and bit down on the center of his right arm. Sure enough, my fangs were able to penetrate his biology. I blew out a lot more cold air, beginning to encase his arm in ice. I managed to freeze over about half of his arm, but he forcefully swung his body downward, which threw me off of him. I landed on my paws and then turned around to look at him again, and he had his non-frozen arm out, the palm of his hand, and two massive claws were pointed directly at me. His hand began to glow with a light similar to the armored parts of his body, and I shivered. A long, bright beam of silver shot out from the hand, closing in rapidly. I barely managed to duck under it by dropping to my stomach, but the beam skimmed the top of my crown, right between both of my ears. It left behind a slight burning sensation, and I sighed in relief. That could have been reeeaaallllyyyy bad.

(*Note: I know golisopod can't normally learn flash cannon, but let's ignore this little detail. I mean, it's body is harder than diamond, I think flash cannon is a reasonable move for it to use.)

I got back up on all fours and crouched down again. The golisopod took his non-frozen arm and battered it against the frozen one, breaking the ice off of it in the process. So much for that… He began to gaze at me curiously.

"The way you move reminds me of the umbreon." I flinched once again at the mention of Kuro. I still had the worrying thought of what happened to him stuck in the back of my head, and him bringing it up multiple times wasn't helping my ability to suppress it.

"Where is he?" I asked, not changing my stance. I admit, now probably wasn't the best time to be asking questions, but I needed some sort of assurance if I was going to focus on the battle at hand. Plus, this would give Kage and Vero all the time they needed to get organized again.

"Oh? Worried?" He smirked and I felt a little embarrassed. "He's dealing with my allies. Going by first impressions, I doubt that they managed to take him down yet, but he's in a three on one situation, so I wouldn't hold my breath." But he's not directly fighting them… He just needs to make it back here. "And by the way, I know that he's going to try and regroup with all of you here, but let it be known that the three he's up against aren't too easy to escape from. They may fall a little bit short in a one on one confrontation, but their most notable skill is pursuit." So Kuro is probably still running away from them…

"You know, he's going to make it back here perfectly fine. After that, everything will be even. Just you wait." I taunted. Honestly, at this point, I wanted to stall for time. Regardless of numbers, we'd have a better chance if Kuro was here with us. Plus, the thought of taking a flash cannon from this guy wasn't really… pleasant.

"You're underestimating my allies. They have entrapped plenty of pokemon here in the past, one more isn't going to be a challenge." I shook my head.

"You're underestimating our friend. We've gotten out of plenty of disadvantageous positions with him in the past, what's one more?" I retorted. I had full confidence in Kuro's ability to make it back here in one piece. Even if he's running from three other pokemon, I know he can figure something out.

"Oh really? Well, why don't we just wait and see how this one-" A loud crash was heard from the other side of one of the buildings. Both the golisopod and I, as well as Vero and Kage directed their attention to the large brick building that was to our left. None of us moved, intrigued by the sound. I let a smile creep onto my face. I know who that has to be.

"There's no way they let him get this far away, they've never let that happen." The golisopod was seemingly talking to himself. After looking off into the distance in in the same spot for a bit, he smiled to himself and chuckled. "Looks like this may get more interesting than I thought." He turned back to me and rose both of his hands up above his head. "Let's continue. Like you said, your friend may be joining us in a little bit." I crouched back down and smiled.

"Told you so." My opponent ran at me again, creating more spheres of water in his hands. He shot one off at me and I jumped over it before freezing the ground under me with an ice beam. I created a stretch of about ten feet of ice on the ground, right below me. I used the momentum from my jump to swiftly slide across the ice, giving me enough speed to completely leap over the golisopod. I shot off another shadow ball at his back as I was flying over him, which connected, but had no real power behind it. It's purpose was mainly to send me further back in the air, creating as much distance between us as possible. Once I landed, he turned around and looked at me, this time with a bit of annoyance in his eyes.

"Constantly running away isn't going to get you anywhere." He began to approach me again, breaking the ice that I made by stepping on it. I smiled as he approached. Forgetting about something?

Before he could get close to me, I watched as he slid on the ground without lifting his feet. It wasn't from excess ice, it was from a dark pulse hitting his back, pushing him forward. As he was sliding across the ground, he turned around to look for the source of the attack, which was Vero, but instead, he found Kage right in front of him. His body was covered in electricity, which was evident by the rampant amount of sparks coming from the luxray.

"This one will hurt a lot more!" Kage rammed into the center of the golisopod's body, knocking him over onto his back as he slid across the light dirt on the ground. Kage and Vero were standing on the other side of the grounded pokemon, and they exchanged a nod with me, all three of us smiling.

The golisopod stood back up, sparks still coming off of his body occasionally. He shook his head and then smiled, although it wasn't the same kind of smirk he had on all of the other times. It was a lot bigger, and he looked excited. This was further confirmed when he began to laugh much more strongly than the chuckles he released earlier.

"I really took you for granted! I can't keep track of all three of you, especially when you were enough to keep me occupied for a decent bit of time!" He rose one of his hands and pointed it at me. "And you, I thought your attacks would do nothing after the first one, but you certainly proved me wrong!" Is he talking about Kage's attacks? "Finally, the slippery zoroark that finds any way possible to disrupt me. Despite failing to do any real damage, you've made sure that I don't have an opening to hit one of your friends twice now! You three are actually challenging me!" The golisopod laughed again. I couldn't tell if it was an excited laugh, or an amused one, but he was laughing all the same. At first, I just thought he was enjoying himself, which he was, but then I came to a realization that worried me. He just took that massive hit from Kage… and he's laughing?

"Now, before I get serious with you," his laughing calmed down and he looked back to where the noise we heard earlier was. "I think we have some company." I turned my head to where the sound we heard earlier came from, which was the other side of a sturdy building. I didn't hear much out of the ordinary, so I wondered why the golisopod implied that someone was there. Since that loud crash, there hasn't been anything new, so why is he focusing on it? None of us made a move, obviously interested in what the golisopod meant, despite the fact that we might have been able to take him off-guard if we wanted to. After a few silent moments, I heard various sounds coming from the area, but they were still quiet to me. As time slowly progressed, the noises began to get louder and louder, eventually sounding like it was on top of us. Wait…

I turned my body to the opposite side of the road that the structure that had our attention was on, running over to it. I looked up at the roof of the building that the noises were previously coming from the other side of. Near the very top, I saw a crobat flying speedily around the perimeter of the roof, swiping over it every now and then, like they were trying to hit something. I tilted my head at the sight, but then heard the sound of running on the dirt roads that were so common in this place. When I looked for the source, I saw a lurantis sprinting down the split part of the road that the golisopod originally came from. They looked reasonably fast, but stopped on a dime when they laid their eyes on our group. They had a confused gaze present on their face, which was then imitated by a poliwrath that turned the corner a few moments after the lurantis. Both of them frantically looked at each of the pokemon in group in front of them, from me, to the golisopod, to Kage and to Vero. They looked very confused. Are those the pokemon that were chasing Kuro? If they are, then where is-

I snapped my head to a loud sound that came from the building all of us were just intrigued by, and there was a huge cloud of dirt over the ground now. Immediately after the cloud formed, the crobat from earlier shot out of the left side of it. Out of the right side, Kuro jumped out of it. There you are! I let my body revel in a feeling of excitement, but I didn't let it distract me from what was happening. The crobat flew at Kuro with impressive speed, and tried to spit an orb of poison out at him. Kuro ran past it and slid under the crobat, who wasn't too far off of the ground. He shot off a shadow ball, hitting the crobat and sending them back a little bit, but not making them flinch otherwise. I had a better view of Kuro now, and the first thing I noticed was a visible red line down the side of his face, going down most of his cheek. He was also breathing heavily. Slowly, but heavily, which was to be expected. He broke his eye contact with the crobat for a second to glance at me and the others, before giving a small smile and nodding.

He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. All of us knew what it meant now that we were all together. Kuro turned his eyes back to the crobat, who never seemed to look away in the first place. I turned my body to look at the two pokemon standing where the road split, a poliwrath and lurantis. Kage and Vero looked at the golisopod we had just been battling, and took their stances. Finally, we're on par with our plan. I smiled to myself, and my previous nervousness transformed back into excitement. I crouched down and looked at who my two opponents would be for now. The lurantis pointed their blades at me and the poliwrath rose their fists. I'm… ready.

A few seconds passed, but they felt like hours of silence. Each of us was staring down someone we were about to battle, or in my case, two others I was about to battle. After the thick atmosphere settled, my two opponents rushed at me, the lurantis being decidedly faster than the poliwrath.

Once they got close enough to me, the lurantis tried slashing my body with their left blade, which I barely reacted to due to the speed of the attack. I constructed an ice shard in my maw and slammed it into the side of the lurantis' body, which made them gasp and jump back while holding the spot I hit. Next, the poliwrath came after me, but I jumped back and hit the ground in front of me with a shadow ball, kicking up a bunch of dirt and making it so the poliwrath couldn't get close to me yet. I have absolutely nothing I can hit them hard with, I need to think of a better way to deal with them.

I didn't have too much time before the lurantis recovered and tried to push me again. This time, they slowed down a bit, as if considering a better way to attack me without risking getting hit again. The lurantis smiled after a few seconds and then took a few steps back again, without fully coming after me, which I was confused about due to the gusto they rushed me with the first time. The poliwrath stepped in front of her from behind the dirt cloud I made, and rose his fists, but didn't approach me. He just stood in front of the lurantis, who was still with her eyes closed. What are they doing? How do I approach this?

I didn't try anything risky, because I didn't know what they were up to, so I just stood still, preparing myself for anything that could happen. A long time of sitting still and listening to the sounds of battling behind me passed, and the two in front of me still hadn't moved, but they both looked amused, like they were glad that I hadn't done anything to pressure them yet. I was still in a bit of a stupor, but I was getting close to snapping out of it and trying to attack. Sadly, before I started to do that, I was interrupted, albeit not intentionally.

The poliwrath and lurantis in front of me both put on a surprised expression, and then jumped backwards, further down the road. This confused me, but not for long, as the crobat from earlier flew through the air right in front of me and crashed into the ground in between me and the two pokemon I was battling. I looked down at the crobat, who was groaning on the ground, but picked themselves up by flapping their wings rapidly and then hovering back into the air. The crobat went to their two other allies and tried speaking to them, but none of them took their eyes off of me, so I couldn't catch them off-guard. I stayed crouched, ready for any surprise attack they might pull. Kuro soon walked up and stood next to me, as the one he was battling had just been sent over here. I glanced at Kuro with the corner of my eye, seeing the wound he had on the side of his face once more. It looked minor, but I still worried that it might have been bothering him. He was still breathing heavier than normal, probably because he needed to move around a ton to make his way here with these three on his tail. He's putting in a lot of effort…

"Are you holding up okay, Naru?" Kuro asked me calmly. Despite him obviously taking damage while he was leading these three here, and being winded, he spoke with complete control over his emotions. He wasn't nervous at all, despite everything he just had to do, and the fact that the task wasn't even done yet. Or… at least… he's acting calm.

"I'm doing good, what about you?" We both turned and briefly locked eyes. "Is that injury on your face bad at all? And can you keep going, even though you just did a ton of running around?" I concerningly asked. I guess… I really am worried about him… Kuro smiled at me.

"This is nothing. I can keep it up until the end, count on it." I smiled back at him because of his response. He sounded so… confident. He turned his head back to the three pokemon conversing in front of us, and they locked eyes with us. "The lurantis is really quick on the ground, the crobat will keep trying to circle you in the air, and avoid getting hit by that poliwrath at all costs." I nodded as Kuro spoke, regardless if he could see me or not.

"Got it." I responded. "How are we going to attack them? They seem like they're up to something." Kuro stayed silent for a second or two.

"I say we wait and see what they do first, then find a way to counteract it. I think going after them now is a lot more risky than waiting and reacting." I nodded my head, although I was unsure if Kuro could see it or not. I continued staring down the three pokemon still conversing in front of us, listening to the sounds of battle from behind. I hope Vero and Kage are doing okay.

Finally, after a minute or two of no conflict, the group in front of us separated , the poliwrath standing beside the lurantis, and the crobat hovering above them. I crouched down as I did before, this time with Kuro next to me, doing the same. Instead of attacking at us though, the lurantis started to chuckle.

"I appreciate you waiting on us. It wouldn't be as fun otherwise." The lurantis rose both of her blades into the air, and they enveloped in a bright yellow light, just as the sun looks when you gaze upon it from the planet. It looked as if the weapons at the end of her arms grew in length, and she giddily smiled. "Too bad it's not sunny today, otherwise I would have been able to do this on the fly, but better late than never!" She excitedly ran in front of the poliwrath, who was taken off-guard by the change in position. "Like I said before, I'm eager to beat someone up, so come on!" She's an interesting character…

"Always so violent, Dice." The poliwrath said with a sigh. He stepped up and stood beside her, and the crobat took to the sky, almost like they were observing. I kept what Kuro just told me in the back of my mind and didn't break my stare from our opponents. The crobat likes to circle and strike from above… The lurantis is going to be all over the place on the ground… And avoid the poliwrath whenever possible.

The lurantis shot off a green orb that rocketed towards Kuro and I, hitting the ground in between us, leaving almost no time to react. Both of us were sent a little ways away from our original position, and the poliwrath was quickly coming after me. So much for avoiding him… He launched a stream of water at me, which I sidestepped and shot back an ice beam. He took the attack head on, but just pushed through it and came closer to me, but with an obvious change in his expression. He swung at me a few times, faster than I was anticipating. I didn't get directly hit by any of them, but a few attacks skimmed me, making me uncomfortable with the situation. I jumped back, creating some distance between us, and then filled my paws with a frigid sensation much colder than the air around us. I then closed the range I just contrived, dodging another projectile shot off towards me. I jumped up, placing one of my forepaws on the poliwrath's shoulder, partially freezing it in the process. Before I could disable him any more, he slammed his other arm into me, which promptly knocked me off. It also hurt quite a bit, especially considering that he only hit me with his arm. I slid across the ground and regained my balance, taking in a breath and re-focusing.

I noticed Kuro going back and forth with the lurantis out of the corner of my eye, but I tried to not let it distract me, despite the glowing blades she had now looking very painful. I held an ice shard in my mouth, and then ran towards the poliwrath. It's pretty clear that I'm not going to be able to avoid him, so may as well go head on! I dodged another orb of water that was shot off at me, but I didn't notice a second one coming from the same direction, which promptly collided with me, spinning my body around. I heard the poliwrath following up, so I quickly spun back around and launched the ice shard from my jaw, hitting him in the stomach. I followed up by hitting him with a shadow ball, which sent him back a few feet, but didn't knock him over. I took the opportunity to stay back and make sure I didn't rush in irrationally.

"I have to admit, you hurt a lot more than the umbreon." The poliwrath got back into his intial fighting stance. "But you'll still need to do better!" I wish I had something that could really damage him… I still didn't rush at the poliwrath, I wasn't sure what I was going to do if I did. I didn't have a plan, and I couldn't think of one at the moment. What can I do to-

My body ended up being launched in the direction of the poliwrath without my consent. I felt a heavy impact from behind me, launching me at my opponent. It didn't take too much thought to know what the cause was. I was helpless while flying through the air, not having the mental state to conjure up an attack to stop what was about to happen. The poliwrath slammed his fist into my midsection, and I was instantly out of breath. I felt like I had been slammed with metal wall, not a pokemon's hand. My collision with the hard, dirt ground didn't help either. I slid down the road, which changed the color of a bunch of my fur from white to dark orange really quickly. I laid down on the ground for a few seconds, breathing in short, heavy gulps of air. That punch rivaled what I felt from Grace's first attack. I coughed, irritating my lungs for a little bit, before pushing myself off of the ground. Oww… Kuro wasn't kidding… I took my last huge breath before I managed to recover from the blow. The crobat… he's a problem.

I glanced upward and saw the crobat still very high in the sky, observing both Kuro and I. It looked like he just waited up there for an opportunity, and then created one for the other pokemon down here. He didn't do much actual fighting, but he still played a vital role between the three of them. I looked back to my main opponent, who was in a fighting stance, but hadn't come after me yet. Behind him, I saw Kuro and the lurantis dancing circles around the road. They were both moving quick, either being on the defensive from the other's attack, or viciously going after them. Even further behind them, Kage and Vero seemed to be holding the golisopod at bay. The two of them had an evident amount of scratches all over them, while the golisopod's armored body looked as slick as ever. In all honesty, this wasn't looking good. Kuro and I need to clean up here and then go help them… But I can barely do anything to this poliwrath… so how can I disable him?

"Alright, how about we keep on keepin' on?" The poliwrath took a step back and revved up his fists, like he was going to charge at me again. I took one more deep breath. I'm not going to let him hit me again, I might not be able to take another attack like that. As soon as we were about to charge each other, my battle was interrupted again, albeit, unintentionally again.

The lurantis had slid in between the two of us, with Kuro chasing her right after. She swung one of her glowing blades at Kuro, but he slid under it, and then slid one of his tendrils along the ground to trip her. As she was falling to the ground, Kuro kicked her back by extending his hind legs, making her faceplant on the ground in front of him. Now, I had a clear view of the poliwrath again, but his eyes had an unimpressed stare, and it looked like he sighed.

"Hey, Dice! Watch where you fight!" He shouted out. The lurantis stood up off of the ground and looked at him with a glare.

"Not my fault you still haven't won." She pointed a blade at him. "If you don't want me to distract you, then finish your fight already!"

"You haven't finished your opponent off either! Don't get at me for being slow!"

"Well I'm not complaining about it! So you shouldn't either!"

The poliwrath and lurantis began to bicker among themselves, with them walking towards each other until they were a few inches apart, still shouting insults and taunts at one another. I just stood back and stared at them, unsure what I should do. Is now the time to attack, or… I looked at Kuro, who was doing the same thing as me, just standing still and staring. He turned his head to me, and it was evident that neither of us really knew what to do. He walked over to me and we stood next to one another, just staring at who our opponents should be.

"Umm… What now? I asked Kuro, and he sighed.

"I don't know. They did this at least three other times while they were chasing me, and I just kept running. They may be a team, but they have a lot of discord." Kuro and I just kept staring at the argument in front of us. I glanced upwards to see how the crobat was reacting to all of this, and he was just frantically flying around above them, looking as if he didn't have the confidence to try and break them up.

"How long did they stay like this when they were trying to catch you?" I wondered how long we should just let this happen.

"I… don't know. They always found a way to catch back up to me, but I didn't stick around to see them argue." I decided to look behind the two bickering pokemon and saw Kage and Vero, still holding out against the golisopod. It looked like he was getting pushed back, which was a good sign. Maybe they have it handled over there…

When I looked back at Kuro and I's original opponents, they had stopped shouting, and just glared at each other. Both of them made a 'hmph' sound and turned back to us. They rose their fists and blades at us respectively, and looked like they were ready to continue. I wanted to give Kuro a heads-up, but the lurantis had already rushed forward and was closing in fast. Kuro went in front of me and started to clash his tendrils with her glowing blades. I flinched at the contact at first, because I thought that she was going to slice his tendrils clean off, but the two weapons clashed, creating a struggle of power, but not a cut. They must be blunt…

While the two were in that struggle, the poliwrath had run around and came towards me once more. He got close to me, about ten feet away, and I crouched down, ready for his attack. I made my paws freeze the ground under me, and he was next. However, right as he was getting within attacking range of me, he stopped moving, and reared back his hand. The gesture confused me, but only for a second. As soon as I realized what was happening, I turned around completely, and slammed the crobat rushing me down to the ground, holding my paw over him. He groaned on the ground, and I froze his wings over so he couldn't fly, or even get up. After that, I shoved him away with a headbutt, and went to turn back around to face the poliwrath. However, when I did, he was about a foot away from me, in the process of swinging his fist. I just barely managed to avoid his strike, but I lost my balance and stumbled on the ground. He brought his other fist around to hit me, and I closed my eyes and braced myself, but the attack never came. Instead, the poliwrath yelped, and was sent over me, and past the crobat on the ground.

I opened my eyes, turning to see both the crobat and the poliwrath on the ground now. What happened? I turned to look at Kuro, who was still in a struggle with the lurantis, but this time, his body had a very dim, ominous glow. It wasn't the first time I saw his body glow like that, it happened when we were up against Grace too. Specifically, when he shouted, and then launched a barrage of dark streams, looking like arrows. Did he just do the same thing again..? I observed Kuro's position closely, and he was struggling against the blades of the lurantis more than he was initially, like she was gaining progress over him, suggesting that he was distracted. My eyes widened while looking at the struggle between the two. So he was paying attention to my fight while he was in his own… and he helped me, even though it's making everything harder for him. My body began to heat up, but the sensation was ripped away from me when Kuro's tendrils got knocked away, and the lurantis swung one of her blades, slamming it right onto the wound Kuro had on his face.

"K-Kuro!" I shouted out on instinct, and began to run over to where he landed after getting blown away by the attack. However, I stopped when I was halfway there, as Kuro got up, still standing strongly, despite the hit he just sustained. His breathing was still weighty, like before, but other than that, he didn't seem affected. The wound on his face began to leak blood though, obviously irritated by the impact of the lurantis' attack. He crouched back down into his stance, and waited for her to rush him, just as she did so many times already. However, she never did, instead, her shining blades dulled out, turning back into the normal scythes at the end of her arms. Her body was shuddering, which confused me. She looked at Kuro as if she was suddenly terrified of him.

"Y-You! Why are you b-bleeding like that!?" She stuttered. Kuro tilted his head, looking confused. I was also not getting the memo.

"What? You're the one who made me bleed, why are you asking me?" Kuro responded, sounding just as confused as he looked.

"T-Then I can't battle anymore. Soar is o-out of commission too, r-right? I saw him get frozen. I-I'm a spectator now, s-so don't come near me!" The lurantis ran past me, and towards her two allies. It looked like the poliwrath was still recovering, but the crobat was just laying on the ground, unable to do anything with frozen wings. She ran to her downed ally and picked him up in between her blades, before running back, going towards Kage and Vero's fight, rather than this one. Is she… Hemophobic..?

Kuro looked at me with his head slanted to the side, and I just shook my head, as if telling him not to question it. I looked back at the poliwrath, who was back on his feet. He sighed loudly, before returning to his fighting stance. I crouched down as well, but was still at a loss as to how exactly I was going to beat him. I didn't have any way to do any real damage, and I didn't think Kuro did either, barring the attack he just used, which I didn't want him to do anymore. I took note that he'd had his tendrils out this whole time, and he just used the attack he used on Grace. His recoil was going to be something fierce once he finally put away his tendrils, and I didn't want to make it any worse.

"Naru! Run towards me and freeze your crown!" I turned my head back to Kuro, who had just shouted. Before questioning him, I turned around and sprinted towards Kuro, and not at the poliwrath. I heard him begin to run behind me, obviously wanting to stop whatever Kuro had in mind, which I was also ignorant to. I froze the crown atop my forehead, and was getting really close to Kuro. RIght as I was about to slow down and stop, he lunged towards me, almost directly aligning us and recreating the day we met. As we were side by side, I felt one of Kuro's tendrils wrap around me gently, but with a grip.

"Sorry I didn't warn you about this." Kuro quickly said, before spinning his body around and me along with it. He let go of me with his tendril, and I flew at the poliwrath fast enough for the wind to make my eyes water. I slammed my frozen crown into the upper body of the poliwrath, who had a surprised expression, which contorted into one of pain. He flew back faster than I did, almost making it all the way to the split at the end of the road. I hit the ground with the side of my body and rolled up onto my paws. I took a moment to process what exactly just happened. Did Kuro just… use me as a projectile?

I walked up to the poliwrath that I had just smashed my frozen forehead into, and once I reached him, he was unconscious on the ground. I stared at the passed-out pokemon in awe, just thinking about how I couldn't do much for damage… unless I was flung at the enemy. I'm… surprised that worked. Kuro walked up next to me a moment later and inferred that the poliwrath was indeed, unconscious. After this thought settled in his mind, he turned to me and bowed his head down.

"S-Sorry for that! For some reason, I just had a feeling that something like that would work, I didn't mean to catch you off-guard or surprise you in any way!" Kuro spoke really quickly with his head down, looking worried about what I thought of the situation. It was clear that he didn't want me to get hurt from that in any way, and that he didn't want to make such a move without letting me know first. But most of that kind of flew past my mind, I was more focused on the way Kuro was apologizing like it was the end of the world. To me, the way he was rapidly spewing his apology was entrapping. I couldn't think straight while he was doing that. That was really… cute.

I giggled to myself and pat Kuro's head, in between his ears. He slowly looked up at me, while I still couldn't help my mannerisms. "You don't need to apologize. I mean, it knocked him out cold!" [Oh my arceus, that pun. Did you do that on purpose Glacey?] I managed to calm my laughter down a little bit. "Besides, it's not like I had a better idea, and I'm usually the creative one!" Kuro just looked at me, still having the same apologetic expression.

"You didn't get hurt, right?" He asked with a caring tone.

"Not at all." I tapped the frozen crown on my forehead with my paw. "I became a lethal weapon for a few seconds! That wasn't something I thought I'd ever experience." My remark got a smile out of Kuro, but it was a shy one. He was still concerned about his actions having a negative effect on me, it was easily visible. At least to me, who could read him like a book. But, like before, my thoughts sort of went astray while looking at Kuro in this state. ...C...Cute….

"Well, than I guess it all worked out okay." I snapped out of my small trance. "I'll make sure not to surprise you like that anymore in the future, it'd be better for the both of us if stuff like that is planned."

"Y-Yeah, that would probably be better." I stuttered out. Kuro walked over to the poliwrath and picked him up in both of his tendrils, probably wanting to escort his unconscious body to his allies. Luckily, despite Kuro's tendrils essentially being an expansion to his body, they had a lot of strength behind them, so heavy lifting was a lot easier. I hope he does okay with his recoil later…

The two of us rushed over to Kage and Vero, who have been fighting it out with the golisopod this whole time. They seemed to be doing really well, much better that when I initially looked at them. They were actually working together really well, and using much more… conventional teamwork than Kuro and I. The had the golisopod on his back legs, so to speak. I couldn't see the battle lasting much longer. Good job you guys. I smiled while looking at them.

Kuro began to approach the lurantis and and crobat, who she was still carrying. As soon as Kuro got close to her, she backed up really quickly and dropped the crobat on the ground, who groaned.

"S-Stay away! Just drop him over there or something!" She pointed one of her blades to a spot a little bit off to the side and Kuro dropped him over there with a sigh. She really is hemophobic…

Kuro walked back over to me and we stood next to each other, looking at the battle between our friends and the golisopod. Vero was circling him at very close range, dodging any swings brought on by the golisopod, and avoiding any projectiles he fired. She also swiped at him with her elongated claws every now and then, but the armor that surrounded his body kept her from doing any real damage. It did look like she hit his midsection a few times, evident from the scratches I caught glimpses of every time the golisopod ended up facing me. That, and Kage took whatever opportunity Vero gave him to hit the golisopod with an electric attack, which I'm sure didn't feel too pleasant. They had a rough start, but it looked like Kage and Vero had the golisopod on the ropes.

Sure enough, the golisopod connected his arm with Vero's body, but she latched onto it before it was able to knock her away. Vero extended a flurry of tendrils from her claws, wrapping around the golisopod's hand, and a decent portion of his arm. Her version of the tendrils Kuro used seemed to be a lot better in a fast paced battle like this, as opposed to how Kuro used his as more of a utility most of the time. It was strange how those two had such variations on what was essentially the same skill.

Vero touched her feet to the ground, and and pulled down with her tendrils as hard as she could. She managed to pull the golisopod's arm down to the ground, where she held him in place. Without needing to say anything, Kage ran up close to the two and unleashed a huge blast of electricity from right next to the golisopod. It lit him up completely, shining off of his diamond-like hide. He didn't shout out at all though, just stayed in place, taking the massive attack. Good thing those tendrils don't conduct electricity…

After Kage's attack was fully released, the two of them jumped back and regrouped, preparing for the golisopod to get up and countinue his assault. However, while the golisopod did stand up, he didn't rush them, he just smiled and stood still. "I yield." He simply said, before beginning to walk over to his three comrades. Kage and Vero looked bewildered by the sudden declaration, and I wasn't much different.

"Wait! Are you serious? You're finished?" Kage frantically asked. He sounded like he really wanted answers. He still had his guard up though, which was understandable.

"Yes, I am." The golisopod said calmly, not sounding angry in the slightest. "I don't know if I can beat you two like this, and even then, your friends can jump in at any time, which would certainly be enough to finish this battle." He sighed, but still smiled. "It's a shame that we'll have to give this place up. We had a lot of fantastic fights here, but we were beaten, and we'll live up to our agreement." He walked over to his passed-out poliwrath ally, and then slung him over his back.

"Dice, carry Soar for me, we'll melt the ice off of his wings when we get back." He began to walk off in the opposite direction of the inner city, heading down the road that had a split at the end. He walked passed Kuro and I, and flashed us a grin, before continuing down the road. They must have had somewhere they came from, and I assumed that they were going to head back to wherever that is. I wasn't certain, but it wasn't really my place to question.

The lurantis came close to us, while carrying her grounded crobat companion, but when she was about to pass us, she doubled in speed until she was about ten feet away. That must be hard to deal with…Once the group of pokemon nearly made it to the end of the split road, the golisopod looked back without fully turning around.

"Don't think this is the last time we'll go against you. I'll make sure it isn't." With those parting words, they all turned the corner, leaving the four of us alone in the town. I immediately sighed heavily and almost dropped to the ground when my adrenaline wore off completely. I didn't really know why I was so tired, as I hadn't really take any damage besides that one sickening punch, but even that was wearing off at this point. I think the stress of being evaluated was finally taking its tole on me. The relief that all of it was finally over really loosened up all of my tensed muscles.

Kage and Vero came over to join Kuro and I, both having ecstatic faces. I looked at Kuro to see if he had a similar expression, but he instead looked worried about something. I wondered what that could be, and my mind came up with a possibility.

"Naru, I'll… be right back. Can you please tell Kage and Vero that?" Without really waiting for me to confirm, Kuro walked off to one of the buildings and went behind it. Right, his recoil… He wasn't going to scream, he wouldn't let himself do that in front of the rest of us, but there was no doubt that he was about to be in a ton of pain for a little bit. There was no telling how he would look while that was going on. I'm sure he doesn't want us to see it either…

"Hey, where's Kuro off to?" Kage asked once he and Vero got close to me.

"Umm… he said he'd be right back, so we should just wait here for a few minutes." I told them. Kage put on a confused expression for a second but then nodded.

"Well, that was a workout… That guy's body was tougher than I thought it'd be." Vero said while stretching her arms back. Hopefully she didn't hurt herself trying to attack him… "But Naru, I have a bit of a question about the guys you and Kuro were against." I tilted my head, signaling for Vero to explain. "Well… did Kuro, like, launch you at that poliwrath at one point..?" I took a second to react to the question I was just asked, but in the end, I just chuckled.

"Yeah… I'll explain that." I then told Kage and Vero about our escapades, hoping that Kuro wasn't in too much pain.

Hello Readers!

Alright, this is going to be a long author's note, so prepare yourselves. First off, I want to ask a question. Do you want to see Kage and Vero battle against Gyro from their perspective at the beginning of the next chapter? It was something I was going to originally do, but there has been a lot of time spent in this ruined town the past two chapters, and I wanted to see if you guys are sick of it yet or not. If you want me to, I'll write that battle again from Kage and Vero's perspective, if you don't, then I'll continue on to what I have planned next. It's up to you, so make sure to let me know!

Also, I do realize that, in the chapter before this one, I spelt golisopod wrong pretty much every time I typed it. [I didn't catch that because I didn't know it was spelled wrong. My bad Glacey.] I didn't do that this time, but now, I am so tired of typing out that pokemon name. I mean, even when I know how to spell it, I screw it up at least once every time. I just can't handle a keyboard cleanly, so you know, typos are very prevalent. (If I didn't have a beta-reader, than these would be much more evident :p)

Okay, now, I made a discovery recently. I never had the fanfiction app because I just didn't think it was necessary when I could do everything I needed to on the site. I just downloaded this app, and subsequently came to the realization that any PMs that are sent on the app… Stay on the app. I don't receive them on the site, so I am so, so sorry to any of you who have sent me messages on the app that I couldn't respond to because I was unaware of this. I made myself out to be so adamant about responding to every review and message that I get, yet I had multiple on the app that I didn't even know existed. I want to apologize to every one of you who I couldn't get back to because I didn't have the app, especially FaoTheUmbreon, because you have been sending me messages from the very beginning, none of which I saw because I didn't have the app, and yet, you still stayed and supported the story. I need to thank you sincerely, and also say I'm sorry. Now that I do have said app though, I can say with confidence that I will respond to every single one of the messages sent to me, I promise this time!

Now that all of the important stuff is out of the way, I want to give my usual thanks yous to everyone who has reviewed, PM'd, or sent me other forms of communication. I appreciate every bit of it and I will until the ends of time! Finally, thank you to my beta-reader, making my chapters much more readable! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	27. Intiation

**Lucas**

I took breath after breath, feeling connected with the ground around me. In a desert especially, it's always easy for a ground type to really feel their element course through their body, which was energizing. I was out here with my mentor, who practically buried me in the sand multiple times. Aven was a strange pokemon, he almost never spoke, and when he did, it was emotionless. His words were blank, not leaving any chance for someone to get a read on him. He intrigued me in more ways than one. Not only did I want to know more about him, but I felt like… I could relate to him for some reason. It was like a mental connection, which was weird, but evident nonetheless.

I hated talking to others, never enjoyed it in the past, and most likely won't ever in the future. Pokemon try and talk to me all the time, like my old partner, and my new partner on occasion. I hate them. I hate both of them. I don't know what drew this feeling out of me, but I hated the two of them, the leader of this place, every other Raven I've interacted with, and the damn umbreon who bested me in the applicants' tournament, embarrassing me more than I can say. I ask myself a lot why I even decided to try and become a Raven, but I always remember the reasoning quickly, and then think about something else.

Aven stood a distance away from me, while I sat on the ground, trying to become one with my element. That's what I was instructed to do by him, and seeing as he's helped me in the past with some of my shortcomings, I was inclined to listen. Despite how I felt about being here when I had no drive to, I had to admit that Aven has made me a more competent pokemon in battle. He teaches me something new every time we meet, but they all seem like basic concepts that I can learn in an hour, it feels like he's holding back on what he can teach me. He's also asked me a lot of strange questions, specifically about malice towards others and how I contribute to the Nest as a Raven. I gave all of his questions half-honest answers, not really sure why he needed them in the first place. It honestly bothered me a lot that I knew absolutely nothing about him, and yet he knew all of this about me. Not that I could do anything about it.

Most of our sessions as of late have consisted of nothing but meditation, which was beginning to get under my skin, as this was the one thing that didn't help me at all. Although, I will admit, something about today felt different. Aven wasn't as statue-like as usual, he moved around every now and then, which wasn't normal. It was almost like he was actually thinking about something for once, not serving the purpose of making sure I didn't leave. Part of me wanted to test my luck and see if I could go do something productive, rather than sit here like an idiot, but I was stopped. Aven had gotten up, and walked towards me.

"I have a question for you." His voice stayed as monotone as ever, despite his slightly different mannerisms. I sort of hoped that I would get something out of him this time, but I accepted that not happening. I looked back at Aven, not saying anything or moving. He knew that I was listening. "Tell me, have you ever killed anyone in the past?" _What? Why ask something like that?_

Questioning Aven wasn't going to work, so I decided that it would be better if I just answered as I was asked. "Yes." I simply said without remorse.

"Ferals, or civils?" He continued to ask. He was a Raven, a leader no less, so I had no doubts that he'd probably done his fair share of ending the lives of other in the past. I wasn't being asked because of judgement, I was being asked for confirmation.

"Both." I responded just as stoically. Aven and I stared at each other for a little bit, not passing any more words. It was like we were trying to get into each others' heads, but I wasn't succeeding. _What is this leading to?_

"Then I have a proposal for you."

* * *

 **Kai**

 _How can they be so loud..?_ I had just finished leading the group of four I had to evaluate out on a mission. Despite the fact that all of them took a bunch of hits, got knocked around, and pushed their bodies past what was necessary, they still had enough energy to loudly converse with one another on the way back. I can't say I was angry at them, just a little bit annoyed. I was glad they were proud of coming out of their first real combat mission on top, but I just wish they didn't tell each other about every little detail considering the task on the way back, especially considering that I just watched the whole thing in real time.

In the bag I had slung over my neck, I had audio-recorded notes regarding the four recruits. I observed each and every one of them carefully, trying to point out strengths and weaknesses, or finding general areas of improvement that needed to be addressed. They weren't exact measurements, but it would help Shard out, who needed to come up with exact statistics. I stood next to a large rectangular room, one where the inside was specifically used to evaluate Ravens of all levels. Shard was on her way here to listen to my notes, and the four being evaluated went to get their stamina restored via a healer at the Nest. I decided to take out my golden device, and then re-listen to my own notes about each of them, not wanting to forget anything.

The first one that played was my observation of the zoroark, Vero. The recording documented her style, and some weak points. She liked to have total control over her opponent in battle, which was evidently shown through her use of techniques. Kuro must have given her some pointers on how to harness what she could really do. Except, her use of the same skill differed from Kuro's. She used hers to entrap her opponent, or mess with them in some way shape or form. For example, she would grab onto an opponent and not let go until it was forced, creating an attacking chance for her allies. Not only that, but she was very swift and smooth with her movements. She wasn't held up at all, despite being tossed around like she was. As for her weakness, she doesn't seem to have much physical strength under her belt, and relies on piercing or slashing her opponents with her claws, rather than hitting them directly. Her type-based projectile moves seemed to do a decent bit of damage, but as for her physical ones, it could use some work.

Next was the luxray, Kage. His strengths were all-around capabilities. He was decently fast, he could hit hard, and he could take hits pretty well. That, along with his ability to cloak himself in an electric charge, preventing most contact, made him quite the formidable one to battle. I'd say he still had the edge on Kuro. His main weakness is simplicity. He doesn't do much in terms of variety, so he has a rather predictable style. His golisopod opponent certainly took advantage of this, and he ended up being punished a few times because of it. He was able to overcome this with the help of his partner, but it was still something to work on in the future.

Now for the glaceon, Naru. Although they fought similarly, she seems to be the polar opposite of Kuro when it comes to combat. Judging by the reactions from the group they battled, Naru's attacks hurt a lot. She could do a lot of damage in a very short amount of time, and with single hits if she needed to. Not only that, but the biggest thing she had going for her was creativity. Being able to instinctively cover the ground below you in ice before using it for a velocity boost really helped her out, and shined a spotlight on her open mind. As for her weakness, she was indecisive in battle. There were multiple times where she looked like she paused, not really knowing what to do. She was an interesting one, her biggest strength and biggest weakness are similar. She can creatively think of a solution to a problem on the fly, but when she tries to really use her head, she becomes unsure. I assumed Shard already knew about this, being her mentor, so I didn't put too much emphasis on her.

Finally, the umbreon, Kuro. I didn't see him too much during this, as he was all over the place even when he led the rest of the four saints back to his allies. However, I already knew what Kuro was about when it came to battling, after all, he is my protege. He was opposite to Naru, his attacks didn't do much, unless he used one of newer ones I taught him, which then causes recoil, so it's a liability. However, he had more than enough stamina to make up for his lack of offensive punch. In fact, I'd say he beat out a lot of other Ravens when it came to stamina, including a few leaders. Not all of them, but he was up there when it comes to endurance. Not only that, but he was a quick thinker. Although he didn't have the same kind of out of the box thoughts that Naru had, he still reacted to most combat situations well on instinct. His overall main weakness… His recoil.

If Kuro didn't have to deal with the pain he has whenever he used a unique ability, then he would be much better off. That's not to say that he's in a terrible position as is, but it's certainly a hinderance. There is something strange about him though. By now, his pain should at least be lessening, but it didn't look like that was the case, made very evident to me by the battle the group had just participated in. He used his abilities a lot in that confrontation, especially near the end. I had high hopes that his over-usage of them meant that his recoil had subsided, at least a little bit, but I was mistaken.

Once they all finished their battle, Kuro separated himself from the group a little bit, which confused me at first. Of course, because he was in my line of sight the whole time, I soon figured out what caused him to perform such an action. He went behind one of the buildings close by, and sat down, closing his eyes. He retracted his tendrils after they had been out for an extensive amount of time, and then a few motionless seconds passed, while Kuro just idly sat down. After those few minutes, his legs began to tremble, and it looked like he was forcing his eyes to stay shut. He grit his teeth and dug into the dirt ground with his claws, all four of them. It was a normal reaction, if a bit more intense than normal. However, this escalated quickly. Kuro threw himself on the ground while his body curled up and contorted, while furiously trembling. He dug his head into the ground, still gritting his teeth, not letting himself do anything other than write in agony silently.

To be honest, the sight disturbed me. It was strange, I had been doing some of the Void's dirty work for a while now, seeing many things that cannot be bleached from my memory, and yet, I had a much more harsh version of the feeling while watching Kuro in pain like that. I had no idea why this stirred up inside of me, it confused me. Here I was, a leader at the Nest and a forced member of the Void, seeing more scarring things than I can count, yet still obstructed by watching my protege try and cope with the worst possible side effect that could come of something that I taught him. Did I feel guilty? That was part of it, but not everything. There was a lot more behind my disturbance that I couldn't quite decipher. _Why am I dwelling on this so much..? This isn't normal._

"Heya Kai!" A voice pulled me out of my mental ramblings, the voice of a half co-worker. The froslass started to glide towards me, and then planted herself right in front of my body.

"I have the recordings of their skills for you." I responded to Shard, specifically trying to keep my voice stoic. I didn't usually need to do that.

"Awesome! I'll make good use of these when it's time to test them!" Shard took the device with the recordings out of my bag and held it in her hand. "Also, something bothering ya? For some reason, your voice sounds a little bit different than usual." _Is it really noticeable..?_

"Nothing of the sort." I responded firmly. "I just finished my job as usual, nothing out of the ordinary happened." Shard smirked at me.

"I didn't ask that." I looked back at her and internally flinched. _Kai… you damn idiot._

"I was just elaborating on what I said, nothing more." I said, trying to recover.

"Oh, were you now?" Shard put on a teasing tone. "From the way it sounds, something happened today that's bothering you." I made sure not to change my expression in the slightest.

"Nothing that happened today bothered me at all. The group I evaluated did perfectly fine in their mission, drove out the pokemon they were supposed to, and made it back with minimal injuries. There's nothing to be bothered about." I thought I had just made my falsified point clear, but Shard chuckled, and I knew I screwed up somewhere.

"What happened to your personality there?" I didn't immediately understand what Shard was saying. "You don't usually talk that much, and I swear I just heard a hint of emotion in your voice." Shard floated a little bit closer to me, leaning her head close to mine. "Something's bugging yooouuuu~~" _...She completely caught me…_

"It's nothing for you to be concerned with." I said with a small sigh, nearly dropping my facade. This girl was too considerate for her own good. Some pokemon don't like to be invaded upon like this, and they may react violently. Although… it's not like many would be able to hurt Shard in the first place.

"C'mon, why don't you talk about it? I can probably help you out if you need it." _Trust me, no you can't._

"It's more of a personal issue that I'd rather not share." I said, trying to resume my stoic tone. I'm not sure how well I succeeded.

"Ahh… I get it. Can you at least give me a general idea? I still think I can help you at least a little." Shard asked with concern. It was weird, this pokemon really did push the notion of everyone she interacted with being as comfortable and happy as possible. I wasn't close with anyone at the Nest, I never allowed myself to be because of my… circumstance. However, Shard still tried to talk to me. A lot. Like, every possible opportunity she had. I just took it as her being friendly, but she seemed to single me out more than the others, which didn't bother me, but it was odd. It obviously had an effect on me, because I was actually considering giving her an explanation. _Should I really say anything? It's risky…_ I processed my thoughts for a second or two. _I guess as long as I water it down as much as I can, then there isn't an issue, right?_

"You can say that I'm… confused about something emotionally." I said, not really caring all that much about my tone. "What I feel in response to something right now is nothing like I should. It doesn't add up with my past experiences, so I'm confused." That's all I was willing to say. If I went into more detail, I could possibly have my cover blown, so I held off. It was admittedly hard not to though. For some reason, actually saying these things out loud made me want to keep going, and express them. Again, I wasn't too sure why, maybe because I never talk anything out. Right now, it didn't really matter.

Shard gazed at me for a few seconds before smiling again. _How is she always so positive?_ "Have you had any of your bonds change recently?" She put on a thinking expression before talking again. "If you start to think of someone differently or care for someone, you might think differently. Like, your views on certain things might change because now you have a different perspective, or you may think of certain things as more or less serious when it comes to an individual. It all ties in with how you think of them. Whether it be respect, love, responsibility, or just general care, your views can change drastically." For some reason, I couldn't really think up a response. I agreed to talk because I wanted to get it off my chest, I wasn't expecting actual advice, let alone advice that actually threw my mind for a loop. _Change in bonds… that… might be… possible._

It was sort of hard to think about to be honest. There's only one pokemon I interact with regularly in the Nest who is an actual Raven, and not an undercover agent. That would be Kuro. I've been training him for just over two months after all, interacting with him every other day within those two months. I've seen him grow from the day we battled in the applicants' tournament. Back then, he was just a random umbreon who had some talent to me. After that, he became my protege, and I thought of him as such, nothing more. But as time went on and I watched him grow, perhaps I began to enjoy his company when it came to training. We didn't talk very much, but sometimes actions speak louder than words, and Kuro had a clear desire to better himself, despite his roadblocks. This was more than evident through our many sessions.

But he wasn't necessarily the only one my views changed on. His partner as well, had a similar drive as him. She was motivated, and clearly wasn't going to take nonsense from anyone. When I figured out that she mouthed off to Aven of all pokemon, I was shocked to say the least. I could barely muster up the will to talk to him normally, and she straight up challenged him. Those two were also inseparable, which gave me some insight as to why they act similar at times. Because of this, Kuro and Naru were pokemon I didn't want to see bad things happen to. They did nothing to deserve it, and knowing that they both had a grotesque experience with the Void in the past just angered me. Thinking about it more, they're the reasons I decided to go against the Void, despite the risk of me being found out and punished by them. _I guess they're also the main reasons why I've been confusing myself._

"Thank you." I bluntly said to Shard. I wasn't expecting her to actually help me, but I was appreciative.

"No problem! We're friends, right?" Hearing her describe me as a 'friend' made me uncomfortable. I wasn't deserving of friends here, especially not someone like her.

I just nodded my head to her and turned around to walk in the other direction, towards my room. I had a lot on my mind to think about, and I needed to sift through it.

 _First off… Who attacked those two?_

* * *

 **Blitz**

 _Owww… Why can't he settle down for one day..?_ I was on my way back to the room I shared with someone who never spent any time there. Lucas was a weird one, he never wanted to talk, and he hardly spent any time in what was essentially his living space. I mean, half the time he didn't even sleep there, I have no idea where he did, but it wasn't in the room. I really wished that the partnership I had with Kage didn't get switched like it did, especially because of the kind of pokemon Lucas is. I actually got along with Kage, and we were friends, not only that, but we could relate with each other a lot more. We even both got beaten up by the same heliolisk every training session, so we understood each other! However, he and I were swapped, giving him someone that he likes a lot, and me someone who doesn't want to come close.

I sighed to myself while turning another corner of the Nest. I hadn't been able to talk to Kage much since he got into a scuffle with a Void member that somehow made their way into the Nest. He spent some time resting off a disgusting gash, and after that, he practiced for his evaluation non-stop, really wanting to prove himself to Xen, who he seemed to idolize. I felt similarly, as Xen put all of his efforts forward to help us, despite the fact that he almost broke our bones every session. He was still a caring guy, just not in the traditional sense, which Kage and I both understood. Because of this, the two of us looked up to him, again, despite the harsh combat we experienced from him. _It's all to make us better… As much as I hate this feeling…_

I limped my way to the door of my room, and then pushed it open with my head. I never locked the place, it wasn't really necessary. I highly doubted that any other Raven was going to come over and rob me, it seemed so unlikely that I just stopped taking caution when it came to locking the door. It's not like Lucas cared either, he's never even here, so I never locked the door. I plopped myself down on my straw bed and let my muscles relax. It was such a great feeling to go from getting knocked around like nothing else, straight into laying on a bed. I closed my eyes and continued to relax, just taking in the usual silence that comes from this room. I guess that was one thing I appreciated about Lucas never being here, the peace. It was something I needed after training, and I'm glad that I got it.

As my mind drifted off, I heard some movement come from close areas outside of my door, although I had no idea what it was. I sort of dismissed it as a Raven walking nearby, because it wasn't exactly the most uncommon thing in the world for someone to come close to the room. In fact, it happened pretty often, but it wasn't too much of a bother. I came from a home with an abundant amount of small siblings, so I was used to a ton of noise when I was trying to rest, a few steps weren't going to bother me. I even made a bit of a game out of it, trying to figure out what kind of pokemon was walking by the room based on the sound of their foot or pawsteps. Of course, I had it wrong about ninety-nine percent of the time, but it was a way to occupy myself while laying down to rest. There was only one pokemon that I could recognize the steps of, and that was Lucas, just because he's been here more than the others. I used to know Kage's too, but that memory floated away when we got switched.

The steps I heard didn't sound like Lucas' which wasn't surprising, as, like I said, he never comes here. _Probably a random Raven._ I continued to let myself relax, wanting to fall asleep and pass time until my body didn't want to collapse on me. For some reason though, I had this nagging instinct in the back of my mind that told me that I should stay awake, like I needed to be ready for something. I really didn't want to, but I gave into this instinct, being intrigued. _Am I paranoid about something? Why can't I just sleep?_

A loud noise made my eyes shoot open and look at the door, where Lucas was now standing. He wore the same hateful scowl he wore whenever he laid eyes on me, as he didn't like me very much. I guess I tried to be friendly with him and he did not like that. Something about him being here was weird though, something other than his presence in the first place. _Why didn't I hear him at all? He always sounds the same, how could I miss it?_

The land shark walked over to the side of the room he resides in whenever he decides to grace me with his company and seemingly stared at the wall motionlessly. I lifted my head up to look at him, confused by his actions. _This is… weird._ Usually, he would come in just to sleep or come in to grab food and then leave again, but now he looked like he was ensnared by something, like he was processing actions through his head. I was intrigued, forgetting about the odd instinct I had earlier, I stood up off of my bed, feeling them tense up as I did. It wasn't really from their strain though, more from my uneasy feelings about the current situation. He had no reaction to me standing up, he just continued to stare at the deep purple wall, not doing anything. _Should I try saying something..? I know he hates me talking to him, but I'm curious._ I took a deep breath.

"Hey-" Lucas immediately turned around and sprinted at me, pointing one of his claws towards my chest. I let out a yelp and jumped to the side, his claw skimming me and making a very light scratch. My adrenaline picked up immediately, and I no longer felt so tired. "Hey! What's wrong with you!?" He removed his claw from the wall, which it almost got stuck in after his attack. He looked at me with an angry stare from across the small room. He didn't just look angry though, or at least, not directly at me. In fact, maybe angry isn't the right word. More like… aggressive. I put my front legs forward, getting into my battle stance. I had no idea what was going on, but I caught the trajectory of that attack. He tried to pierce me, right where my heart is. He tried to kill me.

"What are you doing, Lucas!?" I shouted at him, desperately wanting an answer. He didn't like anyone, that much was certain, but he just tried to murder me. That was not normal. Not by a long shot. Lucas crossed his claws in front of his face and said one word, one word that offered no confirmation.

"Initiation." He shot a purple beam from his mouth, which I ducked under. The beam collided with the wall behind me, rocking the whole room. I took a quick glance at the door to the room, which was closed, and sadly locked by Lucas. I wanted to burn the thing down, but everything in the Nest was fireproof, probably so fire-types didn't incinerate their living space in their sleep. Lucas ran at me again, and I rushed at him in response. He un-crossed his claws in my face, but I stalled before we made contact, making him miss. I slammed my head into his stomach, sending him back into the wall. _Hopefully someone will hear this…_ Lucas recovered and retaliated by headbutting me back, dazing me a little. I shook my head and locked back onto Lucas. _Why is he doing this?_

He ran at me again, and I lit his body up with a flamethrower, which slowed him down and made him stop running, but didn't do much else. I could barely do anything to him in the first place in terms of damage, I didn't mix well with ground types, especially when they had another type that resisted fire attacks, which was my only other outing. Lucas waved the flames away after a second, and his body began to light up with a strange purple glow. This glow intensified and then flared into a red color, before disappearing. _Is that what I think it is?_

Lucas rushed at me again, this time much faster, and then slammed his shoulder into me, which brought a great pain to my muscles, especially the sore ones. My further slamming into the wall didn't help. I pushed myself up just in time to avoid a cross-slash from Lucas, which would have taken my head off. He turned and shot off a stream of flames, which lit the room up in a bright orange. I canceled it out with a thunderbolt, which also made contact with Lucas, but ultimately did nothing. His body began to glow blue, different from the purple glow from earlier. _That's not much better!_ He flung himself at me with an immeasurable speed, looking almost like he didn't have control over himself. Because of this, he was inaccurate, so I was able to easily dodge, despite the small space and his speed. He slammed himself into the wall once again, quaking the whole room.

Aside from the fact that Lucas was trying to murder me right now, something was off about him. He was sloppy. I knew how well Lucas fought, and it was much better than the show he was putting on now. Something must have been putting him off, although I had no idea what. Not that it mattered, right now, I just needed to focus on not getting killed. _Never thought that would be a goal so soon…_ Lucas recovered from his miscalculation and faced me again without his body glowing. I glared back at him.

"Just accept it. You're about to die, and it can be painless." hearing Lucas talk like that gave me chills. He hardly spoke in the first place, but he had a voice that bathed in maliciousness. While looking into his eyes, I pretty much told myself that there was a high chance of me dying right here, right now. I didn't know how other Ravens compared to Lucas, and I didn't know how I compared to him, but that didn't change anything. _I don't stand a shadow of a chance…_ I lowered my body, ready to act once more. _Even still…_ I dryly laughed at Lucas.

"So what if I think I'm about to die?" Lucas lowered his eyelids, intensifying his glare towards me. "Look, I have absolutely no idea why you're doing this right now, or what dropped you into the deep end, but you're forgetting something here." I felt heat begin to gather in the center of my body, building up more and more as I spoke. This heat soon transformed into pressure, moving its way up my body. "I'm not giving up, even if I'm about to die!" My shouting seemed to affect Lucas, who sprinted at me again. His body began to glow once more, but he still didn't have control. Expecting me to dodge in the air, his body was raised high, but because of his lack of cohesive movement, he was higher than anticipated. I used this chance to slide under him, taking the golden opportunity that he gave me. I took a deep breath, and shot off a hyper beam from right under him, connecting with his stomach.

Lucas' body launched up to the ceiling and slammed into it, which earned a yell, and a pained expression on his face. He fell back down face first, right in front of me. With the corner of my eyes, I looked down at Lucas, who started to get up. _I can't move now…_ The aftermath from a hyper beam plus my fatigued muscles created an inability for me to move a muscle, so I just stared into Lucas' eyes as he got up, and then stared back. I couldn't move, and he was fully mobile. I launched that attack as a last resort, something that had the very faint chance of knocking Lucas out. Of course, it didn't work, in fact, it seemed like I barely did anything to him. He looked at me with a combination of anger and contempt, knowing that it was over now. I came to the same conclusion.

I smiled at him.

Lucas stabbed one of his claws into the center of my body, piercing my heart. I felt him shred through my muscles, and break past my bones until his claw reached their destination. It was weird, I felt the pain for a second, but after that, a cold sensation flooded over my body, and I felt tired. I coughed up blood, which stained the ground of my room. My breathing was beyond shallow, and my gasps for air weren't delivering. Even still, I looked up at Lucas, smiling. I was content with death. I don't know why, but I was, and I have been since I joined up with the Nest. It was part of my commitment to be a Raven, I could die at any time out on a dangerous mission, I accepted that. I didn't expect my final moments to be in the room I resided in at the Nest, but the situation was what I signed up for. I was still confused though, why would Lucas want to kill me? Still had no idea. Would I carry this with me into the afterlife? Probably not. No use dwelling on what you don't know, especially when you were about to die.

Lucas pulled his claw out of my body, and I slumped to the ground. My body's internal fluids were expanding across the floor, which Lucas stepped through, and left the room, closing the door. I felt my eyes begin to weigh more, and the cold feeling in my body began to intensify. I voluntarily shut my eyes fully and gave myself one final smile. I wanted to go out looking positive.

 _I guess… I signed up for this…_

I felt one last breath pass through my lungs, and I relaxed.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Welp, now you know what I've been planning to do with with Lucas since the beginning, so I hope this answers all of the questions sent in about him! (Apparently I did a decent job of foreshadowing him doing something bad :p) This chapter is a little bit short compared to some others, because like before, this was originally going to be something entirely different, which was WAY too long for one chapter. (I might even have to split it again depending on how the next one goes) Hopefully it all works out though!

Also, I have a bit of an announcement of sorts. You see, there is a part of the story coming up after everyone gets solo-evaluated where I wasn't sure what exactly to do. Like, I had a general idea, but it was vague and all over the place. However, I had a conversation with one CharTheCharmander (A fellow author, check their work out!) and after a joke about giving Kuro and Naru belly rubs, we basically devised a much better version of what I originally had planned for the future, and for the character that goes with it. And now, this person is also helping me devise a lot of other future events, so they might as well be a co-writer to large parts of this story now, so that's a thing! Check out CharTheCharmander! (Actually one of the most polite people I've ever met :p)

Finally, I want to thank all of the reviewers, and all of you who have messaged me about the story, messaged me about things other than the story, all that stuff. I love all of it and I respond to all of it, so don't be shy! (Not too convincing coming from me :p) Thank you to my beta-reader for making all of these chapters better, and not holding my embarrassing typos against me! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	28. Solo-Evaluations

**Shard**

I hummed to myself as I prepared the space I was occupying for the four pokemon I was going to evaluate in a few. I was in a good mood today, so I was happy to make this evaluation as positive as possible! Well, aside from the pain, but we can ignore that. I loved this room for testing, since it was such an easy space to work with. Just a large rectangular room with a wooden floor, along with violet-striped wooden walls, topped off with a metallic orange ceiling. The color contrast was a bit unconventional, but the room was what really mattered. The wood was made so it couldn't be burnt down, and was sturdy enough to withstand anything, barring that I didn't go overboard. I floated over to one of the walls and pressed one of my icy hands against the wood. _Yup, I could probably break this._

I floated back to the middle of the room and observed how I set the place up. I didn't add much to the empty room, just a few things that I thought would give me some insight to the pokemon I was about to evaluate. On the wooden ground, there were a few pillars that stretched up to the ceiling, made from ice that I produced. There were six of these, three of them on either side of the room. It was a very simple addition, but it was something to spice it up a little bit. I didn't have the ability to set this place up too creatively, otherwise I'd probably knock it down on accident. I remember the last time I knocked down a building of the Nest, and I did not know that Core could use shadow claw. Needless to say, I wasn't making that mistake again!

I was however, grateful that I had such a space to organize my own type of evaluation setting. I was trusted with the skills to determine how capable these Ravens were, so I wasn't going to screw it up! I had a pretty good vision of how much I could push these Ravens thanks to Naru being my protege, so I was confident in my ability to test them. Originally, Kai was going to do this along with their first evaluation, but he backed out of it for some reason. For a little while now, he's been acting… strange. Kai never really talked to anyone, but there was a noticeable difference in his behavior over the past week or so.

What did I do in response to this? Try and talk to him of course! I've always been interested in Kai, wondering why he never really communicated with anyone or spent time somewhere other than his room or with his current student. I've tried so hard to get through to him, try and get some conversation out of him, but I failed every time I tried. He just dismissed me constantly, but never really seemed angry or annoyed, just as if he didn't want to talk. But finally, earlier today, I actually got some speech out of the guy! It was a massive accomplishment, even if I had to act just a bit persistent towards him. Well, not like I wasn't persistent in the first place, but I pushed it much further when it came to him.

I also figured out that Kai was indeed being bothered by something, I just had no idea what. I know there's more to it than what he told me, I could read others enough to figure that much out. He clearly had a lot more going on than some dilemma about his opinion on someone changing. What that was exactly, I had absolutely no idea. I wondered if it was really my place to meddle, but I stopped caring after a while. He needed help with something, that much was clear, so I was going to try and help him with it. Granted, I had no idea whatsoever what I was doing to help him, but I wanted to try regardless.

I decided to stop thinking about what I could do for Kai at the moment, as I had some Ravens to test. I glided towards the entrance of the training space I was in, and pushed the door open, which was actually circular. Don't ask me why, I didn't design the place, but it didn't really change anything. It just meant that whoever made this place started to run out of ideas to make it unique, so added a different door as a weak alternative. (Sorry, I'm not creative at times :p)

As soon as my frozen body left the space, I saw a group of pokemon in the distance, walking towards this room. Two eeveelutions, one blue and white, the other black with yellow rings, both wearing different colored scarves. The other two, being an electric feline and a transformative fox-like pokemon. I smiled in their direction as they came closer, raising a hand to wave at them. None of them looked injured at all, which most likely meant that they were healed after the first part of their test. Kai's recordings said that they were hardly injured in the first place, so one of the medical assistants at the Nest was most likely able to get them back up to full throttle, which was good. Not only would I get a better idea of what they could do, but I would also not have to restrict myself as much, which would further help me determine how capable they were. _Just remember Shard, don't break any bones… You don't want to go on probation again…_

"Hiya everyone!" I shouted out as the group of four converged next to me. Naru had her usual bright smile on, Kuro looked as if he tried to mimic her enthusiasm, but didn't quite succeed, in fact, he looked rather awkward. Kage and Vero both had a similar positive expression on their faces, not quite as bright as Naru, but not nearly as forced and strange as Kuro looked. _I appreciate the effort my friend._

"Hi!" Naru greeted excitedly, always the positive one. She looked energized, as did everyone else in the group. _Good, they'll need all of that energy._ I took in a breath, and readied myself to be in the proper state of mind. It was time to see what these pokemon were really made of. I already knew what Naru could do for the most part, but I'm sure she had a trick or two saved for this test, she liked to keep me on edge like that. As for the other ones, I knew they were quite capable, but I was curious and excited to figure out what feats they'd be able to accomplish. _Alright… Who do I want to take in first..?_

I stared at the four pokemon before me, observing each of them. Based on everything I learned from Kai, I knew who he thought was at the top of these four. According to his recordings, they were all very close in skill level, albeit for different reasons. However, he considered one of them to be a step or two ahead of the other ones, which surprised me at first, but also intrigued me. I thought all of them would be equal in his eyes, but that wasn't the case. I wanted to see for myself what Kai saw right off the bat.

"Okay, you all know why you're here, so let's get right into it! I know you just got back from the first part of your evaluation, so I'll make it as quick as possible!" I didn't want to take the rest of the day away from these four, they needed time to rest at least a little bit. "Now, first up is you!" I rose my hand and pointed at Kage. _I'm beyond curious._

"I'm up first?" Kage asked while tilting his head. I nodded to him with a huge smile. It should be noted, I didn't really like hurting others per se, but I did like to push pokemon to their limits, so I was eager to see what this luxray could do. "Okay, I'm ready!" He sounded like he was trying to psych himself up. _Good, the better mood you're in, the better you'll do!_

"Good luck!" Vero said from behind him as he walked towards myself and the large structure that acted as the evaluation room. He turned back and nodded his head, acknowledging his appreciation. I gave another smile to the rest of the group and then floated to the still opened circular door, before entering. Kage followed after, closing the door behind him, and walking towards me. I decided to float in between the two icy pillars farthest from the door, and he stood in between the ones closest. He looked at me, not really knowing what he should be doing right now, which almost made me laugh.

"Alright!" I shouted energetically. "Now, you know why you're here, right?" I asked him for confirmation, just to make sure I wasn't taking anyone off-guard. That would ruin the fun of an evaluation, and I wanted to have some fun.

"I think so, I'm being evaluated, right?" I nodded my head. _Don't know why I thought they wouldn't know, but better safe than sorry!_

"Indeed you are! Now, I'll explain how exactly this is going to work." I took in a deep breath and released it, accidentally blurring the air in front of me with white mist. "It's pretty simple, I'm going to attack you in a variety of ways, and you're going to fight back. Based on how you react and your actions, you will be graded on a scale of one to fifteen on a number of attributes, and this will determine where we feel comfortable sending you when it comes to going out for missions."

Kage nodded in understanding. "So this is basically a mach-battle?"

"Pretty much! Except, you're up against someone you wouldn't usually be, myself! So, I'll see how you react to the battle." I further explained, floating a bit higher off of the ground.

"But, aren't you Naru's mentor? How will she be evaluated?" He asked curiously. It was a pretty common misconception that trianing someone as a mentor and battling them were the same thing, but they couldn't be more different. I'm not teaching anything here, I'm attacking and judging a reaction.

"Don't forget, I train her, not battle her. There's a distinct difference." I thought for a second, remembering who Kage's mentor was. "Actually, in your case, it probably feels more like a fight to the death, Xen is just kind of like that." I said with a shrug. I respected Xen a lot, and we were part of the same 'group' of sorts at the Nest, so I considered us friends, but I didn't entirely agree with the way he trained his pupils. Did it work? Yes. Did it have awful side-effects because of his schedule? Oh yes it did.

"Yeah… I'm used to it." He said with a sigh. At least I knew Kage was strong, so he could handle it. _Xen has two pupils, doesn't he? I wonder how the second one is doing._

"I guess this won't be too different from your normal training then." I lowered my gaze towards Kage and smirked. "So give me a good show!" He smiled back and nodded.

"I'll try my best!" _I love the enthusiasm these guys have!_

Without any more words, I decided that it was time to start, and the first thing I wanted to test was if he was rusty on a certain skill he used all the way back in the applicants' tournament. Well, two to be exact. The first thing I did in the room was lower the temperature, using the ice pillars I made as well as my own body. I didn't make it too cold, but enough for it to be noticeable, and enough for me to start testing a certain luxray. I relaxed my body, and as I slowly floated to the ground, I became harder and harder to see. My body looked more like a camouflaged blur than a froslass now, which confused Kage and made him dart his eyes around the room without moving. He looked calm though, he didn't panic, despite having no idea what I was doing, despite this exact thing happening to him before, but from Naru.

I was using my ability, which I just happened to share with Naru. Except, I've used it a lot more with her, and I understand how it works, and how I can activate it much more smoothly than she does. Because of this previous experience, I didn't necessarily need snowy weather or hail to use it, just needed a bit of cold, which I could produce. Because of this, I'm able to basically become near invisible whenever I want, so long as nothing is heating up the area. However, Kage didn't know this, because Naru needed hail to do the same thing, he may assume that I'm the same way. _Because of that, how will he react?_

I started to slowly float around the room, going all over the place, even around each of the the six pillars, wanting to test if Kage knew where I was, or at least had an idea. Judging by the way his eyes were still searching the room, it didn't look like he did. This meant it was time to give him a hint. I approached Kage at a slow pace, until I was close enough to touch him. I then took one of my hands, and smacked him across the face, before moving very quickly to another spot of the room. He reacted quickly by shooting off a small ball of electricity in the direction I just was, but it didn't connect with anything. I then swiftly flew back at him and brought my hand into his stomach with a lot of pressure. He grunted and jumped back, but didn't fire off another panic shot like last time. I started to approach him again, but he quickly charged up a thunderbolt and shot it exactly where my near-invisible body was floating. I crossed my icy arms and blocked it, not taking too much damage. I smirked behind my arms though.

I made myself completely visible again, and looked at Kage. "I see you haven't forgotten how to counter that, even if the air around you is cold too." I said with a smirk.

"It took me a second, but I remember." He replied, smiling back. "Even if the air is cold, your body itself is more so, therefor you can still be tracked, even if it was a bit harder." _Maybe Kai is onto something with this one…_

I decided that I needed to test him on one more thing other than standard attributes, and I knew how to do it. _Time to take it up a notch or two._ I rose myself higher in the air, and loosened myself up. I dove downwards, and launched myself at Kage much faster than I was moving previously. As I passed him, I reached out one of my arms and jabbed the side of his body, which made him flinch. Before I flew into one of the walls, I smoothly changed my position to turn back and head towards him again. While I was flying like this, it sort of looked as if I was swimming in the air. As I quickly approached Kage again, I jabbed the other side of his body this time, making him wince again. He jumped back and discharged electricity from his body in all directions, covering the air in voltage. That probably would have worked on any other aerial opponent, but I wasn't like them. I dodged around each string of electricity smooth as silk, dancing in the air while approaching Kage. Once I got close enough to him, I swung the lower part of my body ahead of me, kicking Kage in the side of the chin, and sending him into one of the ice pillars I crafted. _You're missing something here._

Kage shook his head to recover from the impact and stood back up strongly. He faced me and got down into his battle stance. _Think about it, you know why I'm attacking you like this…_ I floated back a few feet, before flinging myself at Kage again. He stared me down, looking as if he was charging an attack. His fur flared up, and began to spark furiously. I readied myself to dodge another blast of electricity at point-blank, but it never came. Instead, I ran into Kage, and then the surge of voltage transferred from his body to mine. The sensation brought painful heat through the inside of my body, which was intensified when Kage knocked me away with his tail. I caught myself before I hit the ground and became steady in the air. I took a single breath and smiled at Kage. _That's what I was looking for!_

"Excellent work there! I see you really haven't forgotten the roots that planted you in this place!" I excitedly shouted at him. Not to mention, from that attack, I got a pretty good idea of what he could do damage-wise. It really wasn't bad, not at all. It didn't hurt as much as others' have, but more than average I'd say. I pretty much got everything I wanted from Kage now, just needed to test one more thing. He smiled at my acknowledgment of his recollection of what put him here in the first place, but didn't say anything, just crouched back down. I readied myself to show him the hardest part of this test. _Sorry about this, but I think it's going to hurt a little. I hope it's a little. I'll try my best._ I took a deep breath.

I floated to the floor and lightly placed my hands on it, looking up towards Kage. "Now, try and withstand my attacks and see if you can counter." I told him, to which he nodded, not moving. _Here's where things get serious._

I bolted at Kage, which took him off-guard, but he still had his fur cloaked in electricity, so I couldn't make contact with him. Instead, I got as close as possible, and then point blanked him with an ice shard. He slid backward and closed his eyes from the impact, and I followed up by forming a shadow ball in my hand. Kage balanced himself and swiped at me with his claws, but I managed to slide in between his swipes, and then push the shadow ball right into his stomach. He grunted and was tossed up into the air, where I then shot off another ice shard at him. He managed to shift his body to dodge it and then encased his maw with deadly heat. Before he could touch me, I flew out from the ground, put myself over him, and slammed him to the ground with an ice shard. He took in a few heavy breaths, recovering from the assault that I just put forward. He turned his head up to me with a focused expression. _He took that pretty well…_

"See if you can land a hit on me like this!" I shouted down at Kage, mainly to motivate him. I drew a breath from deep within my chest, forming two shadow balls, one in each of my hands. I pressed the two attacks together, forming one larger sphere in my hands, swelling as seconds passed. I pointed it down at Kage, and released a large beam from the sphere in between my hands. The beam held a similar opaque dark look to that of a normal shadow ball, just in the form of a beam as opposed to a sphere. As the attack approached Kage, he put on a quick panicked expression, and then rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the attack. It crashed against the ground, quaking the room we were in. _Good thing he avoided that, I might have broken something…_

Kage jumped back after rolling away from the attack, landing in between two of the icy pillars that I formed around the room. He focused back on me, and his eyes lit up for a split second, before returning to normal right after. _Oh? Have an epiphany?_ Kage took in a breath and bent his body downward, his head nearly touching the wooden floor. The sparks flowing through his fur flared up more than usual, spreading shocks all around the wooden interior of the room. I was suddenly very glad that the wood was fireproof. Honestly, I could have stopped Kage from whatever he was in the middle of doing, as he was setting up just a bit slow. However, I was curious as to what he was doing, so I'd give him a chance, just this once. After about five seconds of focusing, all of that huge electric charge that Kage had was finally released, although, not at me. The electricity spread through the room, avoiding me, but lighting up four of the six ice pillars surrounding the room. The light got pretty intense, and I actually had to shield my eyes from it. However, as soon as I went to do so, I felt something hard slam into my midsection, hurting quite a bit. I actually winced at the strike that seemed to come from Kage's shining tail.

I actually flew backwards a bit, before stopping myself in mid air. _Holy crap, I wasn't expecting that out of him!_ I recovered my eyesight and then saw Kage sprinting at me, shooting another thunderbolt in the process. It was a good effort, I had to admit, but I think he forgot who he's up against. I twisted my body in the air, smoothly sliding passed the attack, and swooping downwards. _I think I know what you can do now._ I swiftly flew along the floor, nearly scathing it with my stomach. Kage looked rather surprised at my approach, as I was going closer and closer to max speed as this fight went on. He couldn't react fast enough, and I hit him with a solid uppercut to the stomach. I heard him gasp, as I may have also stepped up my strength a few notches. His body flew into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling. Before he quite got there, I quickly swam through the air once more, putting myself above Kage, and slamming him back to the floor. As he connected with the ground, Kage put on a pained expression and groaned.

Instead of rushing after him for another attack, I floated down to the ground, stopping an inch or two before I touched down. I looked at Kage with a smile on my face. "I think that's all we should do, I don't want to accidentally break something." I said with an embarrassed chuckle, lamenting on one of my attacks earlier. "You did great though! I actually wasn't expecting you to be able to hit me like you did, so good job!" Kage was worthy of a bit of praise, especially since his attacks actually hurt me.

He looked at me with a bashful smile. "I really did that good? It felt like I was getting tossed around and nothing else." He said, shakily standing on his four paws. _I hope I didn't hurt him too badly…_

"Remember Kage, the point of this wasn't to beat me in a battle, I was testing you on a few different fronts. On all of these, you performed fantastically!" I meant what I said. Kai had a pretty good analysis, Kage was all around great in combat. He had the instincts to land hits on his opponent, even when he's at a disadvantage, the hits themselves hurt quite a bit, I would say more than average. Not to mention, despite the fact that he really couldn't really keep up with my speed, he wasn't slow by any means. I'd still say above average. And finally, he took my attacks fairly well. I knew that he looked completely drained right now, despite the short fight, but I had hit him a lot, and considering that he could stand, he didn't have much to worry about.

"Thank you for testing me." Kage bowed his head down while looking at me. _I appreciate your respect, but you just thanked me for beating you up._

"No problem! It is my job after all!" _Well, partially._ "Now, can you send one of the others in please? It doesn't matter who."

"Of course!" Kage walked out of the circular door the room with positivity and closed it behind him. I took a breath and thought to myself for a second. _Right… I need to rate them with numbers…_ This was the hardest part of evaluating others, figuring the numbers out. I always second guessed myself when it came to these, especially with someone like Kage. I mean, his stats couldn't be much lower than that of a leader's if I'm being perfectly honest. He's most definitely higher than most normal members, and to think that he's technically still a recruit… Well, at least for another month or so. I remember having similar thoughts about Naru when I always trained with her, but Kai wasn't lying when he said that Kage may be a cut above the rest of them. _But he also said they were close together… I'm excited!_

While mentally hyping myself up for the rest of the Ravens I was about to evaluate, I heard the door to the room open again, and then turned to look at it. A rather small umbreon walked in, one that I knew quite a bit about, despite never really talking with him at all. I've heard a lot from his partner after all, especially in the past two or so weeks. I looked at him and smiled.

"Welcome to your evaluation!" I greeted happily. Kuro just nodded at me with a small smile evident on his face. _I guess he is the quiet one._ "Seeing as you're not too talkative, do you just want to get right into it?"

"How exactly does this work?" Kuro asked curiously. _Right, I need to explain this a bunch of times…_ I told Kuro about everything he'd be tested on, using pretty much the same exact wording as I gave to Kage. Luckily it didn't take too long to get all of that fluff out of the way.

"Get the gist of it?" Kuro nodded. _All right, on to Raven number two._ Kuro looked like he took in a breath and calmed himself down. He looked ready. I floated higher into the air than I was previously, preparing to test this umbreon for his combative abilities. According to Kai, this one had promise, the same kind of promise that I saw in Naru. _If that's the case, then let's go!_

I decided to catch Kuro off-guard by launching myself at him immediately. He didn't flinch or anything though, just stared at me and reacted to the situation. Before I made contact with him, Kuro rolled out of the way, barely avoiding me. I cleanly turned myself around and sped back at Kuro, who had already recovered. He was facing me, looking as if he was ready to dodge. As I got close enough to uppercut him though, he approached me instead, and headbutted me, directly in the center of my forehead. _Ow! What is his skull made of!?_ While I was harping on why this umbreon had a skull made out of iron or something, Kuro shot a shadow ball at me, striking the center of my body. I shook the attack off and looked back at him. _Just like Kai said._

I formed an ice shard in both of my hands, shooting one at Kuro immediately, but I didn't aim directly at him, more like at his paws. Kuro managed to dodge it, but lost his balance right after, due to the way I shot the attack at him. Right before he tripped, I threw the other ice shard I had at him, slamming into the side of his body. He rolled on the wooden floor, but before he could recover, I swooped down and punched Kuro's stomach, and I continued to follow up and hit him four more times after that. As I went in for the next hit, Kuro slammed hit tail on the floor in order to change his positioning. Now that he was facing me, he shot off a dark pulse right at me, which I swiftly swam around, before I countered with an ice beam. Kuro ducked under it, and then locked his gaze on me, waiting for another move. _He can still move normally._

I let my body merge with the air around me, cloaking me in the cold particles. I was now hardly visible, and I began to slowly glide through the air. Kuro just stared at one spot, not attempting to find me at all, probably because he had a vague idea of what I was doing. If anything, Naru told him about it. _That begs the question though, does he have a way to counter this?_ For some reason, I felt like he did, and I wanted to know what. Because of this, I quickly went after him, ready to observe. Once I got close enough, I slapped Kuro across the face, just as I did with Kage. He took the hit, but then stood still again, seemingly not trying to track me. Although I was a bit confused, I went in for another attack, this time hitting him harder. He slid across the floor, and it looked like he winced, but he still didn't do anything to track me. _What are you up to my umbreon friend?_ I was intrigued at this point.

Now I wanted to know what Kuro was up to, which had to be something. It didn't look like he was looking for me, and it didn't look like he was trying to counter, yet, he was calm. I wanted to know why. For this reason, I kept hitting Kuro, with nothing more than punches and slaps, however, I put more and more into my hits as I went on. Three hits after my initial attacks, Kuro started to tense up with each one, and was showing pretty obvious signs of feeling pain. Whether he winced or grunted, he was obviously feeling each and every hit I delivered, but he just kept taking them. I was actually starting to attack pretty hard, like, hard enough to break the walls of this building, so I was beginning to worry for Kuro's safety, and honestly considered stopping. _One more hit… after that, I'll stop._ I launched myself at Kuro again, ready to strike, but I didn't quite get the chance.

Before I arrived close enough to Kuro in order to attack, he shot two large tendrils out of his back, one of which right towards me. The extension of his body wrapped around me, holding me in place. Kuro then turned to look at me, and out came a dark pulse from his maw, connecting with my upper body. I took the attack, and then tried to freeze the tendril constricting me. The ice only made it about a quarter of the way up his tendril, before he released me, and then slammed the icy part of his tendril on the wood beneath him, shattering the ice. I backed off a bit, but kept myself nearly invisible. _He got me there… but can he do it again?_

I flew through the cold air once more, heading straight for Kuro. Before I got close to him, He swung one of his tendrils in my direction, which didn't quite hit me, but did redirect me away from him. I thought this was just a missed strike, but I felt an attack collide with my back, forcing me forward. I turned my body around, only to see Kuro rushing me, swinging his tail towards my body. I managed to barely get under him, since he had to jump up to hit me. I then punched him directly in the stomach, sending him higher up, before conjuring a clump of ice in my hand. I flew above Kuro, and slammed him to the ground with it, just as I did with Kage. Unlike Kage however, Kuro slammed one of his tendrils on the ground, launching him back up at me, as he slammed his head into my stomach, which I swear hurt more than any of his super effective attacks.

I grabbed Kuro before he could fall back down, and instead of knocking him to the ground, I flew downwards and chucked him at the floor for good measure. He tossed and turned along the wooden floor, but ultimately landed on his paws, digging his claws into the wood to steady himself. _That wasn't bad at all!_ I made myself fully visible in the air and looked down at Kuro, who was staring right where my position was. I smiled at him.

"Great job there, Kuro!" I told him, still not entirely sure how he knew where I was. "Just curious, how did you track me?" He released his claws from the wood below him.

"You moved the same way every time you attacked me. After I took a few hits, I just predicted where you would be." Kuro responded, not really sounding tired at all, which sort of baffled me. _I hit him a lot…_ Disregarding how he sounded, I was still impressed by his deduction, even if it did require taking a dozen or so strikes.

"Not bad at all, great job!" I praised, which made Kuro look a bit uncomfortable. _Not used to it, eh?_ "Well, we're not quite done here, I just want to test one more thing about you, so get ready!" Kuro nodded towards me and his tendrils lowered next to his body. _Those things can be your weapon and your downfall._ Instead of rushing at Kuro like I did before, I stared at him, and he stared back.

We locked eyes for about thirty seconds, neither of us moving. I saw Kuro begin to look uneasy, and I knew the reason why. He retracted the tendrils that he had out, and then just kept staring, holding a stoic expression, but it was forced. I kept waiting, looking for a signal of some kind, which I was ready for. I counted as each second passed, not looking away from Kuro. While bathing in the silence, I noticed Kuro's leg unnaturally twitch.

As soon as this happened, I bolted at Kuro as fast as I could, and punched straight into his chest, which earned a yelp out of him. His body flew back into one of the icy pillars around the room, and he fell back to the wood. Kuro shook his head and looked back at me, huffing a few times. However, I was finished here.

"There's what you need to work on." I simply said, crossing my arms and lowering as close to the floor as possible without touching it. "That's it for this evaluation, you did a great job!" I smiled brightly at Kuro, and he resumed a normal standing position.

"When you say I need to work on something, do you mean the recoil?" Kuro asked, almost timidly, which was odd. It was like he knew it was an issue, and was embarrassed about it.

"Yeeeeep. You got it. As you can see, if your opponent figures out that you have that issue, they'll take advantage of it, just as I did." It was true after all, an opening like that could lead to life or death.

"I see." He responded quietly, looking down. _Is he actually bothered by it?_ "This has been the same since I first learned how to tap into whatever this energy inside of me is. It hasn't gotten any better or worse, so I've been trying to teach myself to ignore it, but apparently I'm not doing well enough when it comes to that." He let out a sigh.

"Really? Kai hasn't suggested a way to fix it?" If anyone could help him with this, then look no further than the guy who taught him how to do it.

"According to him, my recoil should have calmed down by now, at least a little bit." Kuro shook his head. "However, this isn't really the case." _Wait, Kai doesn't know a way to help him? That's interesting._

"That must be a pain." I told him, trying to sympathize. "Well, just work at your own pace, and try your best! I'm sure you'll figure something out eventually!" He looked up at me and smiled.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Kuro bowed his head and began to walk to the door, after I told him to send in one of the two ladies I was to test. I noticed something about him as he walked out though. He didn't look tired at all, even with that last attack hitting him at his weakest moment. _Interesting… Kai wasn't wrong._

I took a breath and watched Kuro fully exit the room, closing the door behind him. _I wonder who's next..? Naru or Vero?_ I was excited to see what these two were capable of. Granted, I've been training Naru for a while, but I could tell she was holding out on me ever since I brought the evaluation up. She definitely had a surprise in store. As for Vero, no idea. Because of this, I was excited to see what she could do. Out of Kuro and Kage, I'd say that Kage was ahead of Kuro in terms of combat, even if it wasn't by too much. Kuro didn't do enough damage to be in the kind of position Kage was in. That's not to say he was in a bad one, not by any means, but I'd still put him behind Kage. _I wonder how the other two will compare…_

Right as I was forming predictions in my head, I heard the circular door open, signaling the third entrance of the group I was evaluating. I brought my eyes to the entrance, watching as Naru walked to the center of the room, close to me. She smiled at me, and I returned it.

"Hello there." I greeted. I was eager to figure out what she had in store for this evaluation, and it looked like she was eager to show me.

"Hello, mentor." Naru's body looked fidgety, like she couldn't sit still. She was clearly excited for this. _That's the spirit! Now calm down before you shriek._

"Alright, I've already explained to you how this works, and since I know all of your basic attributes already, we can skip that part of the test." I began to fly higher into the air. "All I need to do is test how you react to different situations, so how about we get started?" Naru gave a giddy nod.

"Let's do it!" She shouted excitedly. I took a deep breath, lowering the temperature of the room just as I did twice before. I enveloped myself in this feeling, making my body nearly transparent. Naru knew I could do this, I've shown her as well as explained how it works, so she must have thought up some sort of way to counter it. Because of this, I just waited for her to make a move, but she instead closed her eyes. _What are you up to?_ This intrigued me. After a few seconds of observation, I nearly squealed. Naru blended in with the air, leaving what my eyes could see. I felt a rush of excitement and pride flow through my body. _You did it! I can't believe you actually did that!_ It took me an extremely long time to learn how to activate my ability without weather assistance, but here Naru was, getting the hang of it in a little over a month after I told her about it. Part of me wanted to find her just to give her the largest embrace I could, but now wasn't the time. _After the evaluation. That's when I'm delivering hugs._

I decided to slowly glide through the air, keeping an eye out for any kind of discrepancy in the room that gave Naru away. I had a feeling that she was doing the same thing, only on the floor as opposed to the air. I've never had to go up against snow cloak before, so this was new to me. I've dealt with sand veil a few times in the past, but one blizzard typically wiped out whatever sandstorm they were using to activate the ability. Obviously, that wouldn't work against a glaceon. If anything, it would make it even easier for her to cloak herself. _I wonder how this is going to play out…_

I kept gliding around the room, searching for Naru, but to no avail. She was doing a flawless job with this considering it was her first time without weather assistance. However, because of this, the two of us were in quite a stalemate. I assumed she was just wandering like I was, so she was bound to at least make a noise that I could hear or something. I stopped moving in the air and focused on the room around me, listening for anything. The silence in this room was actually a little unnerving, and I had no idea when something would happen, when Naru would finally slip up. _Any time now my glaceon friend…_ Out of nowhere, I heard one of the ice pillars around the room get scraped, so I instinctively turned in that direction and shot off a shadow ball, just missing the pillar and connecting with where the noise came from. Right after I shot it, I felt a harsh pressure push against my back, sending me forward. I recognized this type of attack though, and I nearly squealed a second time, but I held myself back and let out a small squeak instead.

Before I could say anything about what just connected with me, I felt a gust of wind, and then a dark sphere seemingly formed out of nowhere right above me, shooting at me and connecting, slamming me to the ground. _Owwwww…._ I pushed myself off of the ground, and floated back into the air, not bothering to try and cloak myself. After all, I didn't really have anything else to test Naru on. She was my protege, I already knew how she'd react to everything, and how she battled, along with what her individual statistics would be. The only reason I still thought it necessary to evaluate her in the first place had to do with my curiosity over what Naru was hiding, and boy am I glad I went through with it. I got to see Naru effectively use two new things I taught her, which excited me just as much as Naru looked earlier. Speaking of her, Naru resumed her normal level of visibility somewhat close to me, crouched down and ready for more.

"What's nex-" Instead of waiting for Naru to finish, I soared at her as fast as I could and wrapped my arms around her neck. I then brought her into the air with me, spinning in a circle as I did so.

"I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!" I kept spinning Naru in a circle, unable to contain myself. I didn't help her at all with either of the attacks she used, other than the initial explanation of them. All other progress was made by her, and her alone. I couldn't help the excitement flowing through my body over and over, almost to the point where I didn't hear Naru gasp for air because I had a death grip on her. _Oops…_

I went to the ground and released Naru, where she immediately gasped and started to breath quickly and heavily. I just chuckled awkwardly. "Sorry about that Naru, I just got so happy! I mean, you used those skills amazingly! I didn't even need to help you!" I praised, resisting the urge to tackle Naru again. She looked at me and smiled confidently.

"T-Thank you." She said a bit bashfully, which wasn't really like her. "After you told me about how you could use those skills, I focused on everything I could do so I could use them just like you did. I got the cloaking pretty easily, but the shockwaves took a bit more time." _That's to be expected._

Just in case there's a psychic reading my mind right now, I should mentally explain what Naru used other than the cloaking during that battle. She had a huge problem when it came to attacks that didn't involve ice or water, those being her strong suits. Her only other option was shadow ball, which was effective, but not something she could use constantly, mainly because the attack felt really strange within her body, as I'd imagine most non-ghost or dark types would feel when forming a ball of death within yourself. As an alternative to Naru's main attacks, I decided to show her what I use as a substitute at times, especially because I prefered to attack with martial arts rather than my standard moves. Basically, I showed her that it was possible to launch a shockwave through the air by applying a very large amount of pressure within a closed hand, or in her case, under her paw, and releasing it without adding any elemental fluff. It was basically using a standard move without a typing, but it took a ton of practice to get right, mainly because from birth you're used to using a move with your typing, or at least, some kind of typing. This was different though, not using a type of any kind. Even so, I only showed it to Naru once, and then she came back with the ability to use it but a month after I only demonstrated. _You're quite something girl._

I felt my muscles get really jittery, and I was having a hard time resisting them. "Alright Naru, that'll be all for you. You did a fantastic job, and you made your mentor proud!" She very brightly smiled at me.

"Thank you! I'll see you later!" Naru bowed her head and walked out of the room with a spring in her step. I kept looking at the door until it closed, smiling to myself. _You did great, Naru._ I floated close to the ground, waiting for the last of the four pokemon to come in for her evaluation. I didn't think I actually hit Naru a single time during that test, but I didn't really need to. I've trained with her plenty of times to know what her pain threshold is, and what her stamina is like. Basically, like I said before, all I wanted to do was see what she was hiding, and I was not disappointed. Without much time to recover from my excitement, I watched as the circular door that led into this room opened for the forth time, revealing a zoroark that I didn't know too much about. Vero entered the room and walked to the middle.

I sort off… got off on a bad impression with this one. After all, I kind of used her in a demonstration for something, and I don't think I've actually spoken a word to her since. With that in mind, I felt a little bit awkward while looking into the eyes of this zoroark, but the past was the past. I hope. I rose one of my arms and scratched the back of my head.

"Um, hi Vero! It's good to see you again!" I said enthusiastically. I didn't need to force it, as even if we didn't have the best first meeting, I still wanted to be friendly towards her. _Even so, I should probably apologize again…_ "So, um, about when we first met," I started to bring the subject up, but Vero rose one of her claws.

"It's not a problem, I said so back then, didn't I?" Vero spoke, sounding a little confused, as if she didn't expect me to still be hung up on that.

"I know, but I wanted to make sure. I didn't mean any harm, just needed someone to demonstrate, and you happened to be there." I said with an awkward chuckle. Vero smiled at me, not looking annoyed like I was expecting.

"I understand why I was used as an example, no need to make a big deal out of it, all that happened was me being in the wrong place at the wrong time." Vero lowered her gaze to the ground for a split second before locking eyes with me again. "But I'm here to be evaluated, aren't I? Why don't we get that over with?" She put one of her arms horizontally in front of her head, and the other one hung beside her body. It was an interesting stance to take for battle, not one I think I've ever seen before. This excited me.

"Alright! Thanks for your understanding!" I cheerily responded, getting a nod from Vero. I rose to the air for the fourth time in this room, and began to focus on merging with the air again. _Man, this is getting really repetitive…_ My body became nearly invisible again, and I began to float around the room like I had previously. _I wish I had the freedom to design my own evaluation for each of them, but rules say otherwise._ Like with the others, I didn't really know what to expect, but I knew that Vero would react to this somehow. _The rest of them had their way of figuring me out, what will I see from you, Ve-_

The zoroark launched herself at me right seconds after I cloaked myself, and jumped up to kick me in the stomach, sending me backward in the air. I recovered from the blow and backed up more, thinking that my change in position would keep Vero from finding me. _How did she know!? That scared me!_ I looked down at Vero, who I was now behind. She was scanning the room quickly, until her eyes made it to where I was. As soon as they did, she shot off a dark pulse in my direction, looking pinpoint accurate. I swam around it in the air, and Vero jumped at me again, nearly slashing me with one of her claws. After dodging her attack, I flew to the other end of the room, and stopped bothering to cloak myself in the cold air. I looked at Vero, beyond intrigued.

"Okay, okay, I need to know, how are you tracking me?" I asked her, halting the evaluation for just a second. I couldn't know how she was reacting if I had no idea what she was doing in the first place.

"What do you mean? I can see you." She simply responded, dumbfounding me. _She can just kind of… see me!? What!?_ Vero gave me a small smile. "I have really good eyesight, let's leave it at that." She faced me back in her battle stance. _That's not good eyesight, that's supernatural eyesight…_

"G-Good to know." I said, trying to get over the shock factor. _Geez, so the zoroark can just see me and the luxray can't? Genetics are weird…_

Well, all I needed to do now was test her one on one for combat, seeing as I didn't have anything else that could give her any sort of surprise. I'll just have to do everything I can to challenge her physically. With that thought in mind, I flew towards her as fast as I could, swinging my left arm at her. She caught it though, and swung back with her right claw. I ducked under it and gave her an uppercut right under her chin. She flew off the ground and did a backflip to land on her feet, before rushing at me again. This time, she had small tendrils eroding from the sides of her arms, but I didn't see how that could help her in this battle. I shot off an ice shard at her before she could reach me, but she just effortlessly kicked it out of the way and kept running towards me.

We then proceeded to trade a few blows back and forth, until Vero managed to kick the side of my body, twisting me to the side. She attempted to follow up with her right claw, but I caught it, and then slammed an ice shard into her midsection. Vero flew back towards one of the icy pillars, and I assumed she would slam into it, but she used the small masses of darkness coming from her arms to wrap around the pillar of ice, and she spun around it in a full circle, sending herself right back at me and kicking me in the face with both of her feet. I flew back into one of the other ice pillars, slamming into it hard. _Owww…_ I flew higher into the air and formed two spheres of matter in my hands. I pressed them together and shot off a beam of shadowy color, which Vero barely avoided. Because she had to jump away from the attack, she gave me an opening, which I took advantage of. I flew after Vero and hit her in the abdomen with my elbow, which she grimaced at. Before retreating though, she grabbed both of my arms and flipped me to the side, slamming me on the ground. _That was good._

I extended an icy feeling through my body and froze the arm that Vero still had connected with me, and then repeated the same thing she just did with me, but in reverse. The ice shattered on impact, and Vero was slammed to the ground. I rose back up, wanting my height advantage back, but Vero recovered quickly and jumped at me again. Sadly for her, I was on guard now, so I hit her with an ice shard out of the air, sending her back into another one of the icy pillars. After slamming into it, she slid down and stood up a bit wobbly. I just hit her with something pretty hard, and combined with the other attacks she's taken, I think that this was enough for now. I lowered myself to the ground, hopefully not needing to raise up anymore for the day, I was starting to get pretty tired. _That didn't last too long, but I can see her talent._

"Okay! I think that's enough for now!" I cheerily said with a smile. "You did great! I really felt some of those attacks more than I thought I would!" _My back is sore now…_

"Thank you." She said politely with a small bow. Although I had enough to give her a grade now, there was something that she avoided using which confused me a bit.

"Just wondering though, why didn't you use any illusions? Surely that would have helped you out a bit, would it not?" Zoroarks typically used illusions whenever they could, as it was a pretty useful ability to have, if a bit taxing on the body. Vero's expression changed a little bit, but I couldn't really tell how she was feeling.

"I… don't like to use illusions unless I absolutely have to." She said bluntly. _Sounds like there's a story behind that…_ Part of me wanted to press her, but I don't think this was my place to meddle. The only two pokemon I thought I had the right to meddle in the affairs of were Kai and Naru. Kai because he clearly needed help with something, although I'm not sure what, and Naru because she was my protege, and my friend.

"I see. Well, I won't force you. Just a curious question." I followed, not wanting to seem insensitive. "But that's about it when it comes to your evaluation. Good job! Hopefully I'll see you around in the future!" Vero looked up at me with a smile and nodded. She then walked to the circular door and, with a wave, left the room to join up with the other four. I released a stress-filled breath and sat on the wooden flooring, relaxing myself. I was really worried about not being able to accurately score the pokemon I just evaluated, but I thought I had a pretty good idea now. _I should get on that as soon as I can._

I sat myself up and aimed one of my hands at each of the icy pillars at one end of the room. I took a second to focus, and I sent a shockwave ripping through the air, cracking the base of both of them. They then fell over towards the other ones, and like dominos, all crashed down on each other, falling down and shattering loudly. _I wonder if a fire type would like to come in here and melt these for me…_

I lifted myself into the air and floated to the entrance to this room, all evaluations finished. I opened the door and left the room, closing it behind me. I was now back in the large space of the Nest, greeted by the deep violet coloring that this place loved. I breathed in the fresh air, looking at the orange sky. _Now, where should I go to write these results down..?_ I glanced around many of the Nest's twisting paths and laid eyes upon a figure walking down one of them. _Hold on, what's Kai doing here?_ I recalled my earlier conversation with Kai, where he gave me some insight as to why he was acting different as of late, when I was honestly expecting silence like every other time I'd spoken to him. I took it as a sign of him opening up, which was a positive. He still intrigued me in a lot of ways, and I wanted to learn more about him, despite the fact that he clearly didn't like to talk. _Plus, there's only one real reason why he would be here… exactly where the evaluations just took place._

I smiled to myself and began to approach Kai, ready to bother him some more.

* * *

Hello Readers!

So how did you like reading the same scene four times with four different characters? Heh… heh… sorry if that was kind of bland. I wanted to have these four get evaluated by themselves, and I wanted to show their interactions with Shard, so I didn't want to skip over them. In the end, this chapter may be a bit boring to some, but it was a necessary one nonetheless. I tried my best. :p

Anywho, things are going to start to pick up again next chapter, now that our main characters got a little bit of a break from life constantly shoving them into the dirt. Soon, one of the last new characters for quite some time is going to be introduced, and after that's all said and done with, we're going back into the deep end.

Also, with this chapter, this story has reached 200,000 words! It's strange to think that I started this in June of this year, and I've already spent more hours typing it than… well… anything else I've ever done. :p I want to thank everyone who has followed or favorited this story, as getting feedback and messages from all of you is what keeps me going! I love you all!

I want to thank everyone who has sent me a review, PM, the usual. It means a lot, and I love every bit of it! I will indeed respond to any that I receive, so keep them coming! As a note though, I will almost always respond using the site, not the app, unless I know that the individual I'm responding to uses the app over the site. That being said, if you want me to respond through the app instead, just let me know and I'll be more than happy to! I want to give a thank you to my beta reader, who is stockpiling more and more typos to use against me as these chapters go on, but it makes them better, so that's all that matters! (8-BitUmbreon)

[Guys, go ahead and send me a PM if you want me to use the typos against Glacey. In a friendly manner of course :p]

See You Next Chapter!


	29. One left behind

~~Read the note at the end of the chapter to know why this chapter took as long as it did~~

(Sorry about that)

* * *

 **Shiro**

I calmly rested as light wind passed through my fur. Traveling outside for a change felt good, I liked all of the fresh air outside of the Nest. There were a lot of pokemon there, which I didn't like too much, so the space was nice. I was sitting on Kuro's back with my eyes closed, focusing on the clean air. Naru was here too, walking next to us. I had my two forepaws resting on Kuro's scarf, which was wrapped around him tighter than usual because he said the air was cold. I couldn't feel it though, and neither could Naru.

For the first time, I was going with Kuro and Naru on one of the missions that the Nest gave them. Needless to say, I was experiencing a few different emotions. I was excited to see what they did whenever they had to go out, but also nervous, because I didn't really know what to expect other than what Kuro and Naru told me. The two of them explaining it helped me out a little bit, but I also knew that sometimes, things go wrong, and I didn't want that to happen. I thought back to the scary pokemon that chased me out from the small place I lived in for a little bit, and then the other scary one that came to the Nest and hurt Kage. Just thinking about them made me shake. I was glad that there was someone to protect me both times, otherwise I don't know what would've happened.

I told myself to stop thinking about scary things and think more about happy things, like how this was my first time leaving the Nest since I started living there. There was so much out here, and I liked looking at all of it. We passed a few groups of buildings on the way here, and they looked a lot different from the ones at the Nest. I thought everywhere outside would look the same, but none of it was. Everything we passed, whether it was a tree or a group of rocks, it was always different. I was fascinated by all of it, and I wanted to see more. I don't know what it was, but being outside of the Nest just made me endlessly curious about so many things. _I guess I'd already know if I had my memories..._ I pondered for a second. _Oh well! I'll just learn again!_ No use focusing on the negatives, especially since I couldn't do anything about it.

Kuro and Naru hadn't talked too much since we left, which I thought was weird, since they always talked with each other. I knew that Kuro didn't talk much when he was outside of our room, but he talked a lot when he was with us. _Maybe they just have nothing to talk about?_ Since they weren't in a busy conversation, I thought that it would be a good time to ask about some things I was curious about. In order to get his attention, I rose one of my forepaws and tapped Kuro's head a few times. He tilted it a little bit, acknowledging me. "What's up?" He asked. He knew what it meant when I tapped him like that, I've done it a bunch of times before.

"I have a question." I said before taking a breath. "Do pokemon live in some of the places we walked by?" Kuro turned his head back to look in front of him, making sure that he didn't walk into anything.

"Of course, there's probably someone living in all of the areas we've walked by." He told me. _Is the Nest really that different?_

"We live in a huge place, but most other areas don't have living spaces like ours. That's what makes the Nest special, it's gigantic!" Naru said, putting emphasis on the last word in her sentence.

"Although, some pokemon like to stay in the wild and make their own homes to live in. They usually don't like all of the buildings and the crowds of a town, or they just like to live as close to nature as possible." Kuro explained. It surprised me that some pokemon didn't like to live in towns, it seemed so much harder. Although, if they wanted to live there, then it was their choice in the end.

"Where did you live before you came to the Nest?" I asked generally, wondering about both Kuro and Naru. They never talked about where they lived before the Nest. I did know that they didn't always live there though, just not where they came from.

"I used to live in a huge town far away from here, it had a lot of stores, places to get food, and just fun places to go everywhere!" Naru said excitedly, but then her mood seemed to drop a little bit. "The pokemon there aren't very nice though. Most of them just pick on each other or live like criminals." She sounded less excited than when she started, but not sad.

"Wow… That place sounds cool!" I responded, picturing a big town with a lot of buildings in my head. I probably wouldn't want to live there though, she said the pokemon there weren't nice, and I wasn't good with meeting new pokemon, especially if they weren't nice. "What about you?" I placed my forepaw on Kuro's head again.

"I used to live in a small den far away, near the town Naru came from. There wasn't much there besides a really big forest behind it that I spent a lot of time in." For some reason, it felt like Kuro shuddered a little bit, but I thought it was my imagination. "Other than that, there was a small hill, but nothing else. It may be small, but it was a nice place to live in for a little group." Kuro's place to live sounded a lot less impressive than Naru's but he sounded like he liked it, so that's all that really mattered.

He did say something though, something that made me curious about a new idea. Kuro and Naru had been watching me for a while now, and they were the closest things to parents that I could remember, but where were their parents? Neither of them were adults yet, so why were they both alone like this? "Where do your parents live?" I asked among the two.

Instead of the immediate answers I got before, the two of them both paused, like they didn't know what to say. It also felt like Kuro shivered again, but that could have been the cold weather, especially since I was an ice type and making contact with him. After some time passed, Naru took a deep breath, and glanced at me, still walking forward.

"That's not really important, Shiro." Naru told me with a smile. "We don't need to live with them anymore, and the two of us wanted to go out by ourselves, so we did."

"She's right, it's nothing to worry about right now." Kuro said after Naru stopped talking. The way they sounded was weird though. For some reason, it didn't sound like their voices, they were slower, and quieter. I'd never heard them sound like that before, so I thought it was weird. Even if it was though, I knew that they were still the same pokemon, they just put on different voices for a few seconds, that's all.

"Okay." I responded to them, despite still being curious. Their voice changes made me feel weird, so I didn't want to ask the same question again, otherwise their voices might sound like that. _I don't like that sound._ I looked in the same direction that we were walking, and saw another group of buildings, these ones were made out of wood instead of the other ones we walked by, which were made of something else that I didn't recognize. There was a road in between the buildings, made out of some rocky material. It was smooth, but it looked hard, harder than the grass we were walking on.

Instead of changing our path to go around it, we were walking towards it, which was different than what we did with all of the other places we saw. "Is that where we're supposed to go?" I asked, assuming that Kuro and Naru would know what I was talking about.

"Yep! That's our destination! It's called… Um…" Naru sounded really excited and then stopped talking to think. "You know, I don't think we were given a name, were we?" She turned her head to look at Kuro.

"I'm pretty sure we weren't, all we know is that this is the right town and what house we need to go to, nothing more." Kuro responded.

"Huh. Well that's weird. We usually get the names of the places we go. Wait, why didn't I notice this when I took the mission?"

"You're the one who did it, don't ask me." Kuro told Naru with a smile, and I chuckled a little bit. Naru didn't seem to pay attention to small things, which led to some funny times when we were all talking. "Although, you did get all of the other information correct. As in, we're not in at the wrong town, right?"

Naru paused for a second and dug her head into her bag, taking out a large map and placing it on the grassy ground. Kuro stopped walking and turned to look at her. Naru's eyes were quickly darting around the map, looking for where we were now.

"Yep, we're in the right place, I'm sure of it!" She exclaimed. "As for the house we're supposed to go to, it kind of looks like your old place." Naru rose her head and looked at Kuro.

"Really? In a town and not in the wild? That's interesting." Kuro glanced back at the town. "Then again, from what we do know, I guess it makes sense." I tilted my head.

"What do you know about this place?" I asked them, curious to know myself. Naru looked at me after I asked.

"This town doesn't have very much money, so some pokemon probably made their own houses instead of having one built for them. It usually takes less to do that rather than pay someone to build you a stable home." She rolled the map back up and put it back in her bag using her maw.

"There are pokemon that build houses for others?" I further questioned, wondering if that's how all of the houses here were built. Or, some of them at least.

"Yup! They ask pokemon to pay them to build a stable place for them to live. In the town I used to live in, the leader paid a lot of different pokemon to build up the entire place all at once. After that was done, it became one of the largest towns I've ever heard about!" Naru said excitedly. It sounded like she liked the town a lot, so why did she leave?

I looked at the town we were walking to again, thinking about what Kuro's home used to look like, wondering if it was similar to any of the wooden structures I could see. I figured I would find out soon, so I decided not to ask about it. Once Naru slung her bag over her body once more, she walked up next to Kuro again, and we started to walk into the town. As we entered and began walking on the gray path in the middle of all of the houses, I kept glancing back and forth, observing all of the new buildings in my sight.

Most of them were made out of wooden boards, but a few had different colors, and looked like they were made out of something else. I had no idea what it was, but looking at all of the unfamiliar buildings excited me. Maybe it was because I didn't recognize anything, but I really liked picking out all of the differences in every building we passed, even if it was just a board being slanted. I was totally drawn in by the new imagery that was before me.

I heard a few unfamiliar voices coming from farther down the road, and I moved my head to the side to look around Kuro, and observed the end of the road. There was a pretty big crowd of a bunch of pokemon that I didn't recognize, not that I knew many species in the first place. I knew that Kuro was an umbreon, Naru was a glaceon, Kage was a luxray, Vero was a zoroark, and a few more random ones. That was pretty much it though, so I had no idea what more than half of the pokemon in the crowd in front of us were called. Disregarding that though, I felt an uncomfortable shudder go down my body at the thought of walking through a crowd like that. I didn't like interacting with pokemon I didn't know, it made me really uncomfortable. I didn't know if that was due to my lack of memory on talking to others, or if it's because the first pokemon I can vividly remember was one with an angry expression in a dark room. Either way, I didn't like talking to pokemon I wasn't familiar with, it always made me wonder what they were really like, and I always assumed the worst.

I also assumed the worst when Kuro first started giving me food, which is why I was always scared when he came by. Then another scary pokemon came to the place I was sleeping, and Kuro helped me, made me feel safe. The same thing happened when Naru talked to me, sounding really nice, instead of scary. Then I found Kuro's teacher, and he helped me, which made me comfortable. And finally, after that, Kage and Vero helped me when another scary pokemon came to the Nest, which also made me feel safe with them. Other than those pokemon, if I had to talk to someone, I always felt scared.

I decided to dig my head down into the back of Kuro's neck, not wanting to look at the crowd before me. I was a bit disappointed in myself for denying my ability to observe the area around me, but it was worth it to avoid the crowd. Or, at least, to make myself feel like I'm avoiding the crowd. I felt the small bumps of each step that Kuro took, presumably moving passed the crowd I was just looking at. I didn't like the thought, but it wasn't as if I could just deny what was happening when it was the only real possibility. _I'm sure it won't last long…_

While listening to the many different voices surrounding me, I focused on the vibrations coming from each step that Kuro took. He had a pattern of walking that kept on repeating, like each time he moved one of his legs to take a step, it was always exactly the same. I took a second and wondered if I was the same way, but after that second passed, I recognized how random of a thing that is to notice. Granted, I was trying my very best to distract myself, so that sort of led to paying attention to really weird details. I liked finding them though, like when I saw all of the different places on our way here, I felt really excited to know something new. Maybe it's because I didn't know too much about the world, or anything really, but I liked observing or learning new things a lot, it just made me really happy!

Just as I was thinking about something I recently learned, I felt the repeated vibrations stop, and the voices from earlier were much quieter now, although they were still there. "Wow, they really do look similar!" Naru chimed, making me feel curious as to what she was talking about.

"No kidding. Although, this one may be a bit smaller, and not on a hillside." Kuro said afterwards. Letting my mind get the better of me, and because the noises that made me anxious sounded so much farther away now, I took a breath and lifted my head back up to see what Kuro and Naru were talking about. What entered my vision right after wasn't something I was expecting.

We were standing in front of what I thought was a house, but looked more like a huge lump of dirt on the ground. The only thing that really keyed me in to this being a place of residence was a bunch of wooden planks that looked like they were stuck together in the front of the giant hill. Besides the makeshift door though, it wasn't really easy to look at this and recognize it as a house of some kind. It was very possible that it wasn't, but the thing that Naru said before I looked up also made me think that this might be a house. She said that 'they looked similar,' and thinking back to our conversation topic earlier, and how Kuro responded, I put together that this place looked like Kuro's old home. I wasn't really sure why I was able to piece all of this together in the space of a second, but I didn't question it. Instead, I wanted to confirm whether I was right or not.

"Is this place like your old house?" I asked out loud, tapping Kuro's head like usual. He nodded his head right after.

"Yes, it is. I think this one is a little smaller though, at least from the outside." He seemed to look up and down the giant hill of dirt that was sticking out of the ground. "I also didn't live in a town like this. It was a decent bit away from everything else." I thought back to what Kuro said about his old home earlier, something to do with living near a forest and a hill, and I didn't see anything like that around here, just some thin paths and trees, along with a few bushes.

"Well, no need to keep our client waiting!" Naru excitedly shouted before walking up to the collection of wooden planks. She rose one of her paws and tapped it on the wood a few times, which made each of the planks move like they were about to fall apart. It really didn't look like this place was very stable, as if the whole thing could come down on top of itself at any moment. It definitely seemed out of place from the rest of the buildings here. All of them looked sturdy, except for this one. Even so, it had a strange sense of… something. Like, even though it was out of place, and even though it looked less safe than the others, part of it just felt comforting. I had no idea why, but that was just that way it felt. I was distracted from my strange thoughts by the sound of shifting wood scratching together. I peeked around Kuro's neck once more, seeing a small orange lizard-like pokemon peeking out of it, the door not quite fully open. "H-Hello?" They timidly spoke.

I backed my head up a bit, not wanting to be involved in a conversation. I wondered what species this pokemon was, especially since I knew I'd seen another like them somewhere before. Not exactly like them, but with the same color, and with the same type of tail, topped with a small flame. Regardless, I felt just as timid in front of them as I did in front of everyone else in the past. Naru clearly didn't feel the same way though, as she put on a bright smile and looked down at the somewhat short lizard. At least, shorter than her, not much shorter than Kuro. "Hiya!" Naru greeted happily.

The lizard seemed to scan Naru's body for a second, before his eyes landed on one specific part, near the center of her right side. "Are you all Ravens?" He then asked, not really extending out of the door any more than before. He sounded a little bit afraid, almost like I usually sounded when I tried to talk to someone that I wasn't familiar with, save the stutter I was well aware of.

"Yes we are!" Naru told the lizard with gusto. Kuro also nodded his head at the question, but I doubt that it was noticed due to Naru's volume. That seemed to gain the lizard's attention rather swiftly. "You're the one who put up a request, right?" The small orange lizard nodded his head, almost exactly like Kuro did before.

"Y-Yes Miss, I did." The lizard backed up and pulled the weak-looking door open more, taking a step back. "Please, come in. I'll tell you about why I put up a request. I-If you don't mind." As soon as he stopped talking, the lizard looked down bashfully. Naru shot Kuro a quick glance, and he gave a small nod, I almost missed it.

"We'll listen to you, that's why we're here." Kuro said a little quietly. His voice was always quiet, the only time I heard him get loud was when he yelled at one of the scary pokemon that tried to take me. Other than that one time, he's always had the same, quiet voice, never really speaking up unless Naru and I were the only ones there.

"T-Thank you!" The lizard kept his head down, and waved one of his hands to signal that he wanted us to enter the small home. Naru walked in with a spring in her step, and Kuro then followed after her. As soon as we all entered, I looked around, and despite not knowing what to expect, I wasn't very surprised at the interior of the place. The inside of the home was nothing but a hollow dirt hill, with nothing inside other than a small pile of wood in one of the corners, as well as another pile in another corner, but these ones were charred, as if they had been burned. The home itself was also very warm, a lot warmer than the inside of the Nest felt. It was a pretty safe assumption that the lizard living here is a fire type, judging by the heat of the home, and… well… the fact that his tail was on fire. After a few more glances around the room, I noticed a pair of beds against one part of the dirt interior. They looked kind of like the ones that we used in the Nest, but without the same type of quality. The last thing I noticed about the inside of this place was that there was another door on the other side of where we entered, looking almost identical to the one we entered from, but in seemingly better condition. After my observations were concluded, I saw Naru lean closer to Kuro, away from the lizard that let us in.

"You know, you could've added a bit more energy to your voice there." Naru told Kuro, to which he gave a small sigh. Lately, she's been trying to get Kuro to be more social, or at least, speak up more. I guess part of that is making him do some of the talking when they're out on missions, but it looks like he's still in the improvement phase.

"I know… No need to tell me again." He responded, sounding a bit… annoyed? He used a weird tone that I haven't really heard him express much.

"Well, if I don't say it every time, then you'll forget!" Naru sounded determined, like she was on a mission here.

"I don't think forgetting is going to happen anytime soon." He said with another small sigh. "I'm just… Not used to it is all."

"And until you are, I'm not going to stop reminding you!" She smiled brightly, before turning back to the lizard that let us in, and Kuro followed suit, making me face him as well. He looked back at the three of us, still seeming bashful. I could imagine why, as, he didn't sound very old, even if I wasn't too sure what type of voice could relate to what age, I've heard enough to give a good guess. "Cozy home you have here! What's your name?" Naru asked the lizard. He took a step forward, coming a bit closer to all of us.

"T-Thank you miss, I'm glad you like it!" He bowed his head. "My name is Charm, it's nice to meet you!"

"You too!" Naru bowed her head in return. "My name is Naru, and this is Kuro and Shiro!" She rose a paw to gesture towards the two of us. Kuro was the first one to say something.

"It's nice to meet you!" He said with a smile, also bowing his head. I could tell he tried to sound more energetic, but I'd be lying if I said that it didn't come off as awkward. I could appreciate the effort at least, and I'm sure Naru would too. However, when Kuro bowed his head down, that also meant that I was now right in front of Charm, and his attention was half on Kuro, and half on me. I felt myself start to get antsy, and I looked down at Kuro's back.

"N-Nice to meet you." I said as confidently as I could. I hoped that I didn't come off as rude, I didn't want to sound like I didn't want to greet him, but I kind of had a hard time doing so. At the very least, I managed to get some words out, which was the best I could manage. _Better than nothing I guess?_ Despite the strange decline in enthusiasm from Naru to myself with our greetings, Charm looked rather unaffected.

"So, what's the reason you put up a request? It was just a little bit vague, so we're not really sure what we need to do here." Naru said, looking at Charm. Luckily, Kuro resumed his original position, so I was able to hide behind his neck and avoid further conversation. It's not like I hated everyone that I came across, but it was hard for me to think of someone positively, even with a good first impression. I needed to be sure that they were good before I was comfortable, and one nice greeting wasn't quite enough for me to finalize my thoughts, despite it sounding genuine.

"R-Right, I'll show you." Charm took a few steps forward and walked to the door opposite of the one we walked in through. All of us turned around to face that side of the home, rather than where we entered. Charm placed his hand on the side of the door and pulled it open all the way, making it so we had a clear view of what was on the other side. At first, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but upon closer inspection, there were a bunch of marks near the bottom of it, making what sort of looked like half of a hand, and a semi-circle. "For a while now, really late at night, I've been hearing a lot of loud scratches at this door, and after I stopped being too scared to check it, t-this was here." He pointed to the weird shape seemingly scratched into the door.

Kuro walked closer to the door, as did Naru, giving all three of us a better view at the pattern of marks on the bottom of the wooden door. It still looked the same to me, but something about it tugged on the back of mind, like I knew what this was supposed to be. It was odd because, well, I had no idea what I was looking at other than a couple of scratches on a door. Kuro and Naru seemed to closely investigate the drawing, taking a good minute or two to really determine what happened here, or what this was in the first place.

"W-What do you think about it?" Charm asked timidly from the side of us. After he asked though, Kuro's face turned really serious for a second, rather than inquisitive like it was while he was looking at the shape. He gave a nod to Naru, which she returned, and then he turned to look at Charm.

"You said that you heard scratches late at night, correct?" Kuro asked calmly. Part of me liked this version of Kuro's voice more than his forced energy. Charm nodded to Kuro's question. "Well, not to scare you, but whoever did this most likely knew what they were doing, which means it wasn't some random feral." Charm's eyes widened for a second, but Kuro kept talking. "That being said, I think they're just trying to scare you, so I wouldn't worry too much."

"W-What makes you say that?" He asked Kuro curiously.

"To put it simply, this looks like half of a certain symbol that we know, and it's not something a feral would do." Kuro responded, making me curious as well. _We know this symbol? Or, at least, a bigger version of it?_ I was expecting Charm to be curious as well, but he ended up looking down at the ground instead.

"W-Well, I know that already, that's why I'm scared." _He already knows the symbol?_ I saw Naru out of the corner of my eye change her expression, suddenly looking a little bit concerned. This sort of bothered me, being the only one here who had no real idea what the topic of discussion right now was. Obviously, it had something to do with this symbol that I had a very vague recollection of seeing, but I didn't know what about it made Naru look so concerned.

"I see." Kuro said after a small pause. "Well, rest assured, it's not who you think it is. If it was, they wouldn't bother with these tactics. Again, not to scare you, but if they wanted to do something with you, they would have done it already." He finished, his tone sounding firm, but not harsh. I closed my eyes and tried to think about who they could have been talking about. Kuro and Naru had talked about a symbol a few times in the past, other than the Raven one that they both have. Of course, I knew where that other symbol led to, but I wasn't sure what it looked like, so I didn't want to assume. Then again, given the subject matter, it wasn't unlikely that the two topics connected. _But if that's the case, then they're talking about the Void…_

"A-Are you sure? What else can it be then?" Charm asked with a small stutter. Despite not knowing too much about the Void, I've heard enough to know that they're not a very nice group. The first two pokemon who tried to take me away happened to both be a part of the Void, and that alone was enough for me to recognize that they were bad. Really bad.

"A really, really sick prank." Naru said. "Kuro is right with what he said, even if it sounds too good to be true really. I don't think you're in any real danger from whoever is doing this, otherwise, well, things would have been different." She sounded like she wanted to say something else, and Naru spoke a lot less confidently than normal. The again, she was presumably talking about the Void.

I took a quick second to observe Charm, which I hadn't really done yet, as I was to busy trying to shield myself from his view. After hearing his voice and taking another look at him, I swear he might have been even younger than I was. While I had no idea what my exact age was, I knew I was younger than Kuro and Naru, and they weren't adults quite yet, so I had to be pretty low in terms of age. By that logic, Charm had to be even younger, or at least around the same age as me. _And yet, it looks like he's here by himself… At least, at the moment he is._ Another weird thing about his age was the fact that he knew about the Void, and wasn't in a place like the Nest. According to Kuro and Naru, a lot of other places knew who the Void was, but I would think that the knowledge stayed away from children. Well, assuming him and I were children that is, I had no certain way of knowing that without asking someone.

"I-If you're sure, then I won't worry too much." Charm took in a quick breath, like he felt a little bit relieved, but wasn't quite out of worry. "B-But, someone is still coming by and scratching the door, w-what if they s-still want to do something?" Despite the earlier sigh of relief, Charm was indeed still worried.

"Well, since that's what we're here for, we can stay until night and try and catch this pokemon while they're in the act, I know we can get them!" Naru said excitedly.

"T-That's really kind miss, but you already made me feel better, so you don't need to." Charm responded shyly, though politely.

"Aw, come on! We have nothing else to do, so why wouldn't we stay? Besides, then we can talk for a bit, which will be fun!" Naru pushed forward, not wanting to give in to Charm. I honestly didn't mind staying at all, as long as I wasn't forced to talk much. As for Kuro, I assumed that he had no problem with it, judging by the fact he hadn't interjected yet.

Charm looked to the ground, looking almost conflicted. "I-If you don't mind then... " He said quietly, growing a small smile. I assumed that he would feel less scared if he knew that two Ravens were with him when this pokemon came by again, as Kuro and Naru could certainly do something about it. I probably wouldn't be so useful though.

"Great! We'll stay with you until then!" Naru shouted out. "Now, until then, anything you want to ask us? It'll be a good conversation starter!" Charm looked up towards the dirt ceiling instead of down towards the ground, seemingly thinking about the question given to him. I certainly had a few questions for him, but I wasn't too comfortable asking them, even if I felt like I could talk normally to Charm. I didn't want to make any weird assumptions as to why he was here by himself, or anything like that. _I wonder what he has to ask…_

Charm looked down from the top of his home and back at Naru. "W-Well, there was one thing I've been wondering since you all came here." Naru tilted her head and waited for Charm to continue.

"How do a glaceon and an umbreon produce a vulpix?"

* * *

Hello Readers!

I hope all of you are well, and that you had an amazing Christmas/Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate, if any! I also hope you all are having a great start to the new year!

Now, this chapter took a while, and I owe all of you an explanation, to which I will deliver. At first, I had a lot of writer's block for the opening, and the middle of this chapter, even know I only had one thing I really wanted to do, for some reason, I couldn't get my thoughts down no matter what, it was strange. Alas, that isn't the only reason. Although it still would have been late, I could've gotten this done on the 1st or 2nd, but I happened to be moving at the time, and lucky me, one of the cords to my computer got sliced during the move, and I needed to get a new one. That only took a day though, and I was ready to finish!... But I live in Connecticut. As some of you may know, this place got absolutely annihilated by a snowstorm, shutting my power down for the past two and a half days. Luckily though, that's over and done with, so hoorah for that!

Now, for the main reason this took forever, it's a simple one. For the past two or so weeks, I've been… stressed to say the least. I won't go into detail as to why, and I hate making an excuse like this, but I had a very hard time focusing on writing, along with my writer's block, which didn't make getting this done very easy. It looks like life is easing up on me a bit though, so I'll try my best to get my rate back up! Something else to say about this, I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who sent me a message on Christmas day, wishing me a merry one. Seeing that put an enormous smile on my face, and helped my stress more than you can imagine! It shows that you guys aren't just a bunch of people who like to read whatever I put down on a virtual screen, but also people who care, which really warms me up inside! Thank you all!

Finally, I'll give my usual thanks to everyone who has sent in a review, a PM, etc. It means a ton to me, and I love every bit of it! I want to thank my beta reader for cleaning up my chapters and being an awesome person! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You next Chapter!


	30. Progress

**Kuro**

I took a second to process the question that Charm just asked Naru and I. Well, by a second, I more mean a little while… More like a minute or two… It's not like it was a hard question to answer, I mean, it was simple, Shiro wasn't our daughter, she was someone we took care of. If the answer was so simple, then why did I have such a hard time saying it? I mean, it was two things really. One, I sort of thought about Shiro as if she was my daughter, not like I knew what it was like to watch over someone, but it just felt that way for some reason. Not that I minded, but that was just what was going through my head.

And the other reason… Well, he sort of implied that Naru and I 'produced' her, and once one thought connected to another, it was enough for my face to go red. Luckily, it didn't seem like Charm had any real realization of what was happening, which I was grateful for. Naru on the flip side, looked worse than I did. Just by glancing at her to see how she was reacting showed me that she didn't take it any better than I did, probably worse. I wasn't sure why she did, but that's the message I was getting from her very visibly vermillion face.

"W-W-Well, you s-see…" Naru gave an honest effort at talking, despite the fact that she clearly wasn't too up to the task. _I commend you, my friend._ I took in a deep breath and tried to focus on taking over, as it was pretty clear Naru wasn't going to sound too convincing.

"C-Charm, Shiro isn't our blood daughter, she's someone we look out for. We didn't p-produce her." I had a hard time getting a certain word of that sentence out. Naru swung her head up from looking down, but she was still really red.

"Y-Yeah! Also, K-Kuro and I aren't t-together like that…" Naru further explained to Charm, though she sounded a little better. I'm sort of glad she cleared that up for Charm, as he may have thought otherwise if he assumed that Shiro was our daughter.

"Together like what?" Charm then asked. _Maybe not then…_

"N-Never mind." I said, hoping to cut the topic off right there. It was obviously making Naru and I uncomfortable, so I wanted to stray away from it. We were just supposed to be talking after all, passing the time until night, where Naru and I would investigate whatever we needed to. There was nothing awkward about it, Naru spoke the truth, and that was that. _Would I really mi-_ I shook my head and felt a familiar warmth become very prominent in my body. _Now is not the time to think like that…_

I took a deep breath and composed myself to keep my mind going to places I honestly didn't want to turn away from, but now wasn't the time for an inner conflict. I looked back at Charm and got ready to answer any more questions he might have had.

* * *

 **Naru**

I found myself at a loss for words for a little bit. Or rather, for a long bit. Charm had just asked Kuro and I a question, and I guess it was a pretty normal one, considering how little he really knew about us. It wasn't too strange that he assumed what he did, so I understood it, but that didn't make me feel any different. I was still flustered beyond belief, not because of the question itself, but because of the wording he used, which made my mind really go wild, which didn't have too great an effect on me. Like, really didn't have a good effect.

I mean, answering the question wouldn't be hard, all we needed to do was clear up the confusion, that's all. Now… That would be easy if the question was phrased differently, but… the way he said it put a bunch of thoughts in my head. Thoughts that I honestly… kind of liked. The fact that I liked them was what made it suddenly hard for me to form words in my mouth. This was stuff I thought about only when I was by myself, or when everyone else was asleep. Needless to say, because I was now thinking about it in front of Charm, Shiro, and a certain umbreon, my reaction wasn't very… calm. I felt my body heat up, like, my whole body all at once. Instead of focusing on that, I glanced at Kuro, who was looking down at the ground, with a small red tint below his fur. That just added to my crimson face. _C….Cute…_

I shook my head rather harshly, trying my best to ready myself to talk. I took in a breath, and gave it a shot. "W-W-Well, you s-see…" _Naru… you sound like an idiot…_

"C-Charm, Shiro isn't our blood daughter, she's someone we look out for. We didn't p-produce her." Kuro said, cutting me off a bit. Not that I minded. In fact, I was pretty thankful. _I can't just stay silent though..._

"Y-Yeah! Also, K-Kuro and I aren't t-together like that…" I said afterwards, hoping to clear everything up. I seriously needed to get off of this topic, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to talk in a coherent sentence.

"Together like what?" Charm asked, which relieved me and sent me into a worse state than before at the same time. _He doesn't even know..? How did he manage to embarrass me so much without even-_ I cut myself off, not wanting to worsen my ability to form words in my mouth.

"N-Never mind." Kuro said, hopefully ending the conversation topic right then and there. I glanced at Kuro again, and stared for a second or two.

…

I shook my head again, focusing on Charm once more, getting ready to answer whatever he asked us.

* * *

 **Shiro**

Kuro, Naru, Charm and I were now all sitting in a circle, similarly to how we usually do back at the Nest, but with one extra pokemon. I admit, I was starting to feel more comfortable in the presence of Charm, despite still not being too on board with the idea of talking. I'd barely said a word since we all started to talk with each other, but it was less about being uncertain if I could trust Charm or not, and more of just me being me. However, I wasn't the only one that slowed their talking for a little bit.

Kuro and Naru asked if Charm had any questions at all for them, and the first one to come out of his mouth made Naru become a stuttering mess, and Kuro needed to clear his throat before answering in a better way than Naru, although not by very much. All they really had to say was that I wasn't their daughter, but someone who was taken in by them so they could look after me. The two of them sounded like they were holding back on what they were saying, but I didn't give it much thought, as the topic distracted me as much as it seemed to distract them.

Despite the fact that it was a misunderstanding, I couldn't help but harp on the question that Charm asked. Well, not the question itself, but rather, the idea behind it. Obviously, these two weren't my blood parents, I mean, I was a different species as them altogether, and although my memories are astray as they are, I knew that I couldn't be the product of a glaceon and an umbreon. That being said, I couldn't help but look up to Kuro and Naru as if they were my parents.

After all, they were the first two pokemon who really made me feel safe, even with my weird situation, they still said they would stay with me, and help me. They even look after me, bring me food, make sure I'm happy around them, and are even trying to help me overcome all of the problems I have. I mean, what else could they be to me? I had no idea what I would call them, other than parents to me. Because of this, I really did consider them something very close to parents, but thinking about it made me feel odd. Like, I had no idea what it was even like to have pokemon in that position to look after you, or, at least, I didn't remember.

In the circle we were sitting in, I was between Kuro and Naru, and across from Charm. He had asked us a variety of questions since the first one, mostly about what they do as Ravens, and a little bit about the place they came from, being the Nest. I even learned a few things, like how it was divided into different parts, and how Ravens were trained differently depending on what they wanted to do at the Nest. Like, Kuro and Naru could fight really well, but some others could fly really fast or are really smart. I had assumed they were all like Kuro and Naru, but it didn't look like there were any duplicates at all, everyone was different, even if they were in the same field. I liked that about the Nest, it meant that there were a lot of different pokemon in one spot, and they can still be friends with each other. As much as I liked this about the Nest though, I wish I was able to experience it more, but I had to get over my timidity for that, which wasn't going to happen in the near future. All of the questions were good ones though, even if the first one made Kuro and Naru bumble around for a few seconds, it at the very least gave me something to think about.

We had been talking for a long time though, and none of us had asked Charm a question yet, despite the rapid fire ones coming from his end. Not that it bothered me, but it was just something I took note of. Again, it was a really weird thing to notice even know I wasn't trying to pay attention to it, sort of like how I noticed the way Kuro walks earlier. I still wondered what Charm was doing here, or why he was by himself, even know he seemed just as, if not younger than me. But I was afraid to ask, I think the voices that Kuro and Naru put on earlier when I asked them about their parents kept me from giving that question to someone else, as I really didn't want to hear that voice again. It made me sad, even though it was just a pitch. I would rather not hear a voice of that type again than have my curiosity sedated.

"It depends on the day, sometimes, we have all the time in the world, other times, we're pretty strapped down." Naru said, responding to Charm, who asked how busy their days typically were. "A little while ago, we had to go pretty far away to complete a few tasks, and we were able to get everything done with less than half the time we were given! Although, we sort of had to leave early…" _That's when they both came back really hurt…_

"What made you leave so early?" Charm further asked, sounding rather curious. I didn't really blame him, but part of me wanted to interject because it seemed like that was a bad memory for both of them. Or, it was partially bad at least. They seemed a lot closer after that, but at the same time, Kuro in particular acted different for a while, but he was back to normal now.

"We actually got attacked by someone." Naru said with a awkward chuckle afterwards. "She pretty much knocked my lights out for a day, and did something similar to Kuro." I noticed that Charm tensed up a little bit. "But we made it out okay in the end! Thanks to a bit of of a slip up on her part, so it all ended up okay! Well, other than a bit of head trauma for a while." Naru chuckled again.

Charm didn't look too amused though, he still looked scared. "W-Was the one that hurt you a part of the V-Void?" He shakily asked. I was initially surprised at what he said, but thinking back to what was going through my head a little while ago, it wasn't all that unlikely. If anything, this just confirmed my earlier thoughts. _I'm surprised I figured that out without asking…_

Kuro put on the same serious-like gaze he had on earlier, when discussing the symbol scratched on the back door. It wasn't cold though, just stern, and I hoped that Charm saw that the same way I did. "Yes, she is with them. In fact, she's up there with the most dangerous members." Kuro said with the same relaxed tone as earlier. _They were attacked by someone that scary..? They didn't tell me that…_ "If you're okay with me asking, how do you know about the Void? You don't need to give out an answer if you don't want to." Charm looked down at the ground, suddenly looking dejected, rather than scared.

""T-They've been really close to me before. M-Mommy used to tell me about them." Charm sounded like he was choking up more with every word. "S-She…" He then went from barely talking to seemingly not being able to get a word out. I felt bad for him, as it wasn't too hard to piece everything together. I mean, an assumed child living by themselves already wasn't exactly standard, and the fact that his parent presumably told him about the Void can suggest that she had some sort of connection to them, which could have led to bad things. _Why did that pop into my head so quickly..?_

Charm looked like he wanted to keep talking, but he just stayed silent for a few moments, tearing up. It looks like Kuro struck a nerve by mistake, and his and Naru's expressions looked as if they were all too aware of it. Kuro did quickly wipe that regret off though, and took a breath, probably assuming the same thing I did. Charm no longer had a parent.

After taking that breath, Kuro took a few steps forward, standing directly in front of Charm. Kuro placed one of his forepaws on top of Charm's head, which was only possible because Charm was sitting, and Kuro was standing. Charm glanced up towards Kuro, with his teary eyes not changed. "You don't need to say anything else. We get the picture, Charm." The two looked at each other for a few seconds. "You're not alone, we know all too well what you mean." Kuro took his paw off of Charm's head and took a few steps back, before Naru got up and stood next to him. Not wanting to feel awkward, I also got up and stood next to Naru. She rose of of her paws and put it on my head, initially making me flinch because I wasn't expecting it. I looked up at her and she smiled at me. _What's going on..?_

Kuro took in another breath. "Want to hear a story, Charm?" He tilted his head in response. His eyes were still teary, but his expression wasn't quite as sad as before. Perhaps he was able to recover quickly.

"What k-kind of story?" Charm asked, sounding a lot less choked up, but not quite all better yet. Admittedly, I was really curious too.

Kuro stayed quiet for a few seconds, looking like he was gathering his thoughts. "A story to show that you're not the only one who was left without anyone to help." _What does he mean..?_ Kuro took another deep breath, which he had done three times now in a very short amount of time. _Why does he keep doing that..?_ "I actually used to live in a place really similar to yours, but maybe a little bigger, and a lot farther away from everything." _Is he just going to tell Charm where he used to live..?_

"In that home, I lived with nobody other than my two parents, far away from everything else. I liked it though, it was peaceful, despite there not really being anyone else there, I was never bored, just always eager to waltz around and take in the air. Living there sort of made me love just being outside with the rest of nature, so I'm glad it turned out that way." Kuro paused for a few seconds. "As much as I enjoyed my life here, I was promptly forced away from it rather suddenly. Three members of the Void decided to approach my family, although back then, I had no idea who they were, or that they even belonged to an organization. I just thought they were a few random pokemon, so, even if I was uncomfortable, I didn't think too much of it. After watching them talk to my dad for a bit, my mother decided to go see what was up with them. As soon as she got close, the three of them attacked, instantly murdering my dad right there on the spot." My eyes widened at what Kuro was saying, and I stood stiffly. _Did… I just hear that right?_ My mind rewound back to the trip over here when I asked Kuro and Naru a question, now filling me with an uneasy amount of guilt. I felt Naru start to rub the top of my head, like she knew. I still couldn't really process it though.

"After that, my mother was pretty petrified, as was I." Kuro glanced up to the top of the interior of the dirt hill and stared at it. "Sadly, it wasn't over yet. One of the other pokemon came over and did the same thing to my mother." Kuro closed his eyes, but he didn't seem uncomfortable at all, and I wish I could say the same for me. I was practically shaking at this point, I mean, I had absolutely no idea that Kuro had something like this locked up in his mind, even if it made sense when thinking back logically. I just… didn't know how to react. "I was left alone after that and… the three pokemon just left me for dead. I managed to survive on my own, but I was without any company for quite a long while, similarly to how you seem to be right now." Kuro took a breath and looked back down at Charm with a small smile on his face. Charm on the flip side, looked absolutely petrified, jst staring up at Kuro. I was giving him a similar stare, not sure how to take what I just learned. And to think, it wasn't even over yet.

"And Kuro isn't the only one, you see, I got practically tortured by a bunch of kids in the old town I used to live in, and my only real solace was my two fathers and my overly energetic little brother, who liked to break things a lot." Naru smiled at her memories, but I couldn't bring myself to do the same. All because I knew what must have been coming next.

"I came home from a normal day a long while ago, and walked in to something I wasn't expecting. I probably don't even need to say it, but all three of the other members of my family were no longer alive, which put the younger me in quite a panic. After the initial shock though, I realized that I was now just… alone. Like Kuro, I managed to survive by myself, but it wasn't easy on my mind at first, that's for sure. Even if I coped with it over time, the notion that I grew up for a large amount of time on my own is still evident in my mind. In the end, I know what it feels like to be in your position." Naru finished speaking, not moving her paw from my head. I couldn't really grasp anything right now. I had no idea at all what Kuro and Naru had been through… They didn't tell me any of it, and they didn't show it at all… at least… not to me.

I glanced over at both Kuro and Naru, who still had calm expressions, like they were hardly fazed. Kuro seemed like he had a hard time talking at times, but Naru just said the whole thing fluently, almost like it just doesn't bother her. I thought that to be impossible, but thinking about it more, she always seemed to never let anything get to her. Despite how much he wanted to hide it, I've been able to tell when Kuro was sad about something in the past, he wasn't the best when it came to his feelings. But Naru, I never, not once saw her in a bad mood. She was always jolly, always happy, and always friendly, almost never feeling sad about anything. _At least… when she's with me…_

"W-Why are you telling me all of this?" Charm asked unsteadily. He sounded just a little bit better though, I could tell by the pitch of his voice. Despite him not knowing, it looked like Kuro and Naru telling Charm all of this helped him out a little. Although… I'd be lying if I said it didn't do the polar opposite to me..,

Kuro took a step ahead of Naru and I and looked at Charm. "We don't want you to feel alone is all. If anyone can understand the situation you're in, it's the little group standing in front of you right now. All of us know what it's like to be alone, and to be terrified, to be traumatized." Kuro took a breath and smiled. "I won't pry, but I can tell you're in a similar situation. Because of that, we're here to help you if you need it, beyond just completing this task we have." Charm looked up at Kuro with teary eyes. I had to admit, as quiet as he was, Kuro sure knew how to talk. At least, when other pokemon needed it. If it was just for conversation, then I think the opposite is true.

After staring for a few seconds, Charm got up and ran at Kuro, wrapping his arms around Kuro's neck and dragging his head down into a hug. "T-Thank you!" He shouted out and dug his head into Kuro's neck. His voice was scratchy, like he was resisting the urge to cry.

Kuro didn't look too comfortable, but after a second of recovery, he smiled again and brought one of his paws to Charm's back. "N-No problem. That's what we're here for after all." Charm released Kuro's head and looked up at him with a smile. I felt Naru finally remove her paw from my head, and I looked up at her, only to see the same bright smile as always, but maybe a bit different than usual. She had two different kinds of smiles, and I'm not too sure what made her show one or the other. Even so, I have noticed that sometimes her smile looks different from the usual bright one, and while this one is just as blinding, there was something about it, like she was admiring something. I just didn't get it.

"That being said, is there anything you want us to do besides the task we're here for?" Naru asked. Charm looked at Naru from next to Kuro and then down to the ground, putting on a thinking expression. He honestly looked as if he had something in mind, but was hesitating to say anything. I would have tried to think about what he could ask for, but the previous conversation was still ringing through my head, and it was hard to process anything else. I couldn't help but linger on the topic, which was beginning to annoy me, and make the guilt I had raise to the surface further.

"I-I really don't want to trouble you any more than I already have..." Charm said in a low voice. I guessed that he didn't like the fact that we had been here for as long as we have, just talking, despite the fact that we're the ones who suggested that we'd do it in the first place.

"Don't worry about that! We're happy to help you with any request!" Naru excitedly squealed with enthusiasm. "I mean, we're already here and it's about night, so it's not like we mind staying any longer anyway! Plus, we're the ones who wanted to in the first place!" I didn't mind staying longer either. Despite the fact that I've said a total of five words since we arrived, I sort of liked the conversation that was going on, even if I wasn't a part of it. I also saw a bunch of new stuff on the way here, so I had no problem staying, as I was in a good mood already. _At least, for a while…_

"W-Well, there's one thing that comes to mind, but it's not really… likely I think." Charm said, a bit sombrely. Naru just perked up more.

"Awww, I'm sure it's not that out of reach! Why don't you just ask us? It couldn't hurt!" Naru still sounded just as happy as before.

Charm looked at the ground for a few seconds before turning his eyes to Naru. "I r-really don't like living here, it brings back too many bad memories…" He paused for a second. "D-Do you think you can help me find a different place to live..?" Charm slowly turned his eyes to the ground again as he was finishing his request, like he was embarrassed to ask. However, Naru didn't change her vibe.

"Of course we can help you out! That's not too hard of a request at all!" Naru exclaimed, getting Kuro to smile.

"I-I don't want to go too far though, just not in h-here." Charm followed.

"Not a problem at all! You know, we can probably get someone to build a new home for you around here if you want to stay in the area!" Charm looked up after Naru finished.

"B-But, isn't that expensive?"

"Price doesn't matter!" Naru retorted. "I mean really, it doesn't matter, we can handle it, promise." She assured with a nod. Kuro and Naru always seemed to have more money than most of the Nest, and while I wasn't too sure as to why, as money really didn't matter for anything other than food in the first place, and we had plenty to get food. Ravens got awarded a ton for their efforts too, so I don't think money would ever be problem for us. Unless we get robbed or something, that is.

"A-Are you sure?" Charm asked again, still not sounding too confident in his ability to ask. I sort of understood it, but because I knew just how much we had, I also knew that it wouldn't be a problem.

"Positive!" Naru shouted. I was happy that Naru could keep so lighthearted all the time, but I also hoped she wasn't intimidating Charm. He backpedaled a little bit and gave a small smile.

"T-Thank you!" He said gratefully. I was past the suspicion of Charm putting on an act at this point, it seemed like I could trust him. That being said, I still wasn't too keen on talking yet. I was way too distracted by my other thoughts.

"No problem! I guess we can get started on that as soon as we're done with the first task!" Naru sounded even more excited now. "But, if you want to stay in the area, we probably shouldn't leave, so mind if we stay here for the night? That way we can get started right away tomorrow!"

"O-Of course you can stay! T-There's not too much room though." Charm said.

"Well, our room back at where we come from isn't too much bigger, if at all really, so we'll be okay!" Naru paused for a second. "By the way, it's getting later in the night, isn't it? Shouldn't we start keeping an eye out for that… whatever pokemon trying to scare you?" Kuro nodded after she stopped talking.

"I can wait outside for whoever it is. It's going to be dark, and I won't have a problem seeing anything." Kuro said calmly.

"W-Will you be okay in the cold Mr. Kuro?" Charm asked him, sounding worried.

"I share a room with two ice types, I'll be okay." He said with a small smile, and Naru blushed a little. "One of them overexerts themselves during training sometimes, and has a hard time keeping her body temperature at normal levels when trying to sleep."

"H-Hey! That doesn't happen often!" Naru retorted quickly.

"Can't deny it happens though." Kuro taunted, before walking towards the back door. Naru just made a few weird embarrassed noises and turned back to Charm and I.

"I-I'm going to make sure nothing bad happens, so I'll wait by the door for Kuro. You two can talk for a bit." Naru very swiftly turned away and speed walked to the back door right as Kuro was exiting. She held the door open and looked outside, and it looked like that was the spot she was going to wait in while Kuro was scouting for whoever this scary pokemon was. I didn't focus too much on that though, as I was distracted by two things now. One, the conversation from earlier, and two, the fact that I was being forced to converse with someone else. Well, not forced, but I didn't want to be rude. Charm walked up next to me as the two of us both looked at Naru standing in the door.

I was thinking of a way I could possibly try and talk to Charm, but nothing came to mind. I had no idea how to start small talk, and I didn't feel confident at all either, so I stayed silent for a bit. "You have really nice parents." Until Charm spoke to me. I took in a breath and gave my best attempt at a response.

"T-They really are g-great." I said, growing a small smile. I loved Kuro and Naru a lot, and hearing them be addressed as my parents made me oddly happy. "I-I wonder what my b-blood parents are like…" I said out loud without thinking, not taking into consideration who I was talking to.

"You don't know who your blood parents are?" Charm curiously asked me. I shuddered a little bit, forgetting that he knows pretty much nothing about who I was, thanks to my five words in the prior conversation.

"N-No, I'm not n-normal." I paused. "I-I can't remember anything f-from when I was y-younger. That includes my p-parents." I was a little saddened to say it out loud, but I had accepted it at this point. Plus, I had a family now, and I was able to make new memories, and figure out new things! Or at least, rediscover things.

"O-Oh, sorry…" Charm apologized, which made me feel a little bit guilty… On top of the previous guilt I had…

"I-It's okay, I don't m-mind. I-It doesn't bother me a-anymore." I was telling the truth, it made me a little bit sad, but now that I found a place to be, I really didn't mind when it got brought up. Obviously, I was curious, but I could live with that, so long as I could still learn new things. Or… re-learn things… _That's weird to think about…_

"B-But it's good that you found new parents! And really nice ones too!" Charm said with some enthusiasm, making me smile a little. "I-I don't have any anymore… but I'm happy for you!" I looked at Charm, surprised at his words. Not too long ago, he was nearly in tears at the mention of his mother who was presumably… gone. Now, he was bringing it up to me with a smile, trying to make me feel better at his own expense. _He's odd… But I appreciate it…_

"Thank you." I told him, feeling much more comfortable than before. "A-And, even if your mom is gone now… We can help y-you. The two of them helped me, and I think they can help you t-too!" I tried to sound energetic, but I probably just sounded really awkward… Kind of like how Kuro sounds when he tries to imitate Naru.

"T-Thank you! I'm happy you're here to help!" Charm said, before wrapping his two small arms around my head. I wasn't too surprised at the gesture though, seeing as he did the same exact thing to Kuro earlier, so I just accepted the hug.

"That's what we're here f-for!" I said loudly, pretty much just copying how Kuro and Naru act. I wasn't one of the pokemon here to help, but I was still going to try if I could, even if I wasn't a Raven. _At least… I don't think I am… am I?_

"All of you are great!" Charm released me and backed up a little with a smile. I tried my best to smile back, and though it wasn't hard, as I was in a good mood again. I still couldn't help but feel guilty about earlier, but I put it in my head that Kuro and Naru would understand, because that's who they were. _No need to worry too much about it… They'll understand…_

"Thank you!" I bowed my head a little bit, appreciative of Charm's positivity. We were just on a hard topic, and yet he bounced back from it just like that. "I'm glad you're-" I heard the door that Naur was standing in earlier suddenly close, and I turned my head to look at it. Naru was no longer in the door, presumably now outside. My body involuntarily tensed, just because I was not expecting that at all. I glanced at Charm and saw that he wasn't reacting much different than I was. I gulped down, feeling just a bit nervous.

"H-Hey, what do you think that was..?" Charm asked, sounding uneasy. I don't blame him, but I took a deep breath and tried to think about the answer to that question. _We're here to catch someone who keeps coming here at night, so that's what it has to be. No doubt, right..?_

"D-Don't worry, I think everything is okay, we were ready for this." I told Charm, trying my very best to assure him. Not that I was good at it, but Kuro and Naru did it to me all the time, so maybe I inherited some of their wisdom..? _Probably not…_

"O-Okay…" Charm took a deep breath too, calming himself down, which was good. "Tha-" The door suddenly flew open again and Naru walked into the home with a rather annoyed expression. She gave a sigh and looked at the two of us.

"Mission accomplished… But I don't like this guy…" Charm and I tilted our heads. "Your culprit is a haunter that is doing nothing more than playing a prank on you, so don't worry, you're safe. Kuro kind of has him… trapped right now and is giving him a nice talk." I shuddered at what Kuro was possibly saying to this pokemon. He was so nice, but I'd imagine that he's not the same way when he's angry… "But alas, you're safe, so don't worry!" Naru turned her expression into a smile.

"T-That's good." Charm looked down with a smile. "Thank you!" Naru chuckled.

"Awww, no need! We're happy to help!" Charm ran over and hugged Naru's neck, just like he did with Kuro earlier. She wasn't caught nearly off-guard as Kuro was and just nuzzled him back. After a few seconds, Charm pulled away and walked backwards to stand by me again. "Looks like Kuro's just about finished... " Naru looked back in the door, and Kuro walked in, his tendrils still drawn out. _Mercy on that haunter..._

"Well that was just a bit annoying…" Kuro said with a sigh. I thought that the situation was fairly normal, Kuro just walking in, a little upset with the pokemon he had to talk with. Charm, however, was taken aback by the large tentacle-like appendages eroding from his body. It looked like he nearly toppled over upon Kuro entering the home. Kuro just looked confused though, and he tilted his head. "Something wrong Charm?"

"W-What are those things!?" He asked, sounding almost panicked. I was sort of confused as well at his reaction, but then again, I thought Kuro's abilities were a bit odd too, I just got used to them. Not only that, but the first time I saw them.. I was just a bit too preoccupied to be concerned with the shape of the things. They were being used to help me, so I didn't really care.

Kuro took a second to stare at Charm, before coming to the realization of what exactly Charm was referring to. "Oh, sorry about that…" Kuro retracted his tendrils and looked at Charm again. "Those are normal, don't worry." _Just normal..? Even to me that sounds hard to believe…_

"W-Why are giant tentacles n-normal..?" Charm asked, sounding a bit intimidated. Kuro smiled and looked like he was resisting a chuckle.

"Well, maybe to me they are. Sorry, didn't mean to catch you off-guard." Kuro bowed his head apologetically.

"I-It's okay… I just wasn't expecting it…" Naru walked over and placed a paw on Charm's head with a smile.

"Don't worry! Kuro isn't scary as he looks sometimes! He's really soft when you get to know him!" She exclaimed, making Kuro give her a strange look. Naru then let out a large yawn, which made me do the same in return. I guess I was feeling a little tired, it was my first time out in the field with Kuro and Naru after all, so I guess the excitement was taking its toll on me. I did take in a lot today after all.

"A-Are you tired? I have beds you can use for the night if you're planning on staying. There's only two of them though." Charm pointed to the set of beds near the side of the near empty home.

"I think I'll stay outside and watch for the night. I think it's important." Kuro said, looking in the direction of the back door.

"But, won't you get cold Mr. Kuro?" Charm asked in response to his statement.

"I'll be okay, plus it'll be nice to absorb some moonlight. It's been a long time." Kuro stretched his legs out as he spoke, looking a bit excited to spend some time outside at night. _Why does he feel the need to keep watch..?_

"Okay, then you and Miss Naru can share a bed if you want, then we'll have room for everyone!" Charm said excitedly while pointing in my direction. I just nodded and put on a small smile, brought on by Charm's enthusiasm at something as simple as finding room for everyone to sleep.

"Sounds good." Kuro said as he finished stretching out his limbs. "I'll see all of you in the morning then." Kuro bowed his head and walked off the back door before exiting. As soon as he was gone, Naru yawned, which made me yawn again, but not Charm. He seemed immune to the contagious act for some reason. _Maybe he's just not tired..?_

After a few more minutes of idle chatter, Naru walked over to one of the beds and laid her body across it, curling up a little. I also went over to the same bed and curled up beside her, and she placed one of her paws on my back. It felt… really comforting. I don't know what it was really, I felt the same way when I was resting on Kuro's back, like I was safe. I closed my eyes and went into my mind for a bit, still focusing on Naru's paw.

Earlier, I asked myself what I really considered Kuro and Naru. Even if they felt like parents to me, did I really view them as such? I wasn't sure, I hadn't ever thought about it to that point. I don't know if they had either to be honest, if I'm like a daughter to them or not. Either way, I wouldn't change my thoughts. In the end, these two were my parents, there's no dancing around that. They give me food, they protect me, they make sure I'm happy, and I love them more than anything else. I curled a bit closer to Naru, rubbing up against her. _She's my mom after all._ I relaxed my mind and went to sleep with a smile evident on my face.

* * *

 **Kuro**

 _This is relaxing…_

I sat down in a small grassy area, no trees nearby, only a few bushes scattered around the edges. There was a waxing half moon out at the moment, and while it didn't quite give me the same euphoric feeling as a full moon, I still loved every second of the light being absorbed into my body. I had my eyes closed, using this time for some more mental-based training. Whatever the 'dark energy' in my body was, it was pretty obvious that there was a methodical way to keep it controlled. I wanted to get better at that, it made it easier to use my tendrils, and made it easier to shoot off larger scale attacks. The recoil was ever so present, but that was just more of an incentive to get better at… whatever this would be called.

I took a few deep breaths, feeling something flowing within my body. I tried to control the flow of what I felt, moving it all around within myself. The flow was smooth, and I could very easily grasp a certain amount of it, but it felt like there was always more that I couldn't access, despite feeling it in my body. The more I focused on feeling it, the more I felt like I could take advantage of, but that worked in very, very small increases. They did exist, but that was definitely the slowest part improving out of everything I was attempting to improve on. _At least it's getting better..._

I rested my mind while sitting on the ground, focusing on the relaxation I had from the moon. It was soothing, and I loved the feeling I had in my body. There were only a few things that could calm me down to this extent, and I was glad that this was one of them, as it was an irreplaceable feeling. The only other times I could be this calm was when I was surrounded by nature, like when in the forest behind my old home, or when Naru was talking to me about something. No matter what though, this feeling was so relaxing, and so calming.

"Mr. Kuro..?" I opened my eyes but didn't turn around at the sound of a voice behind me. I wasn't sure why Charm was still awake, but if he wanted to talk, I would gladly do so. I didn't turn around, I was still stuck in the feeling of basking in the moonlight.

"What's up Charm?" I asked him, curious as to what he wanted to talk about. He came over and sat down next to me, so the two of us were side by side in the yard, which was nearly pitch black, it was really dark. I could see fine because I was an umbreon, but Charm probably only knew where I was through the rings on my body.

"Aren't you tired, Mr. Kuro?" He asked form beside me.

"Not really. The moon keeps me awake and energized at night." I responded to him. "By the way, you really don't need to call me Mr. or Naru Miss. You can just use our names you know." It felt weird to be addressed formally. I wasn't used to it, it's not like anyone would ever have the need to do it in the first place.

"But, mommy told me to treat adults with respect!" Charm said energetically. _Someone was taught good manners…_

"Well, Naru and I aren't really adults quite yet. We're old enough to have matured a lot, but not quite adults. However, if you really need to call us that, I won't stop you." _No need in trying to fix what's not really broken…_

"Okay! Thank you!" Charm still sounded energetic, but he then looked down for a second, and went silent again. "H-Hey… How did you get over it?" He suddenly asked. I knew what he was talking about, and I can't say I was expecting a question like this to come from him. I thought trying to get over what I presumed to be the death of his mother would be the last thing on his mind, but it looked like this wasn't the case.

I took a second to gather my thoughts. I had to tell Charm the truth here, despite the fact that the topic made me feel much less comfortable than I would've liked. "I haven't." Is all I could really say. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Charm look at me with disbelief.

"B-But you were able to talk about it so well earlier, how aren't you over it yet if you can talk like that Mr. Kuro?" _If only I knew how to answer that…_

"I just sort of… do it. I used to not be able to even think when the topic came up, or I thought about it at all. I hated the feeling, and I just tried my best to cry it off and think about something else. After a while though, I was able to think about it without freaking out, but talking about it was still too much for me." I thought back to a certain point during the applicants' tournament, when I attempted to tell Naru about my situation, and I was a total mess. _But after that…_

"But… then I talked about it more with someone. That pokemon being Naru. She listened to me, and then told her own story, which I had no idea about at the time. Even so… she was so strong about it. Not even a stutter. She gave me the whole picture, and yet, she didn't falter in the slightest. I really respected that. I thought it was amazing that she had the ability to talk about something as tragic as that without any hindrance. Part of that motivated me to be like her, to be able to face all of this without faltering, to accept that it happened and there's nothing that can be done about it. I'm still in the process of doing it… but talking it out with Naru, and her being there for me is what made it easier, even if I'm not fully over it. She's really amazing… especially to be able to do something like that. That's one of the things I like most about her." I glanced at Charm, who was staring at me with a near unreadable expression. I couldn't tell what he was feeling in the slightest.

"B-But I can't even talk about it…" He said in a choked tone. I just placed a paw on his back, still looking forward. Looking directly at Charm would just make him uncomfortable.

"You know, you're not the only one I know who was forced to face life with nobody just like that. There's en espeon who I met on a mission a long time ago in a similar situation to you, nobody really there to help, with one exception." My body tensed as I thought about Shine. _Does he know yet..? Did Cyan tell him..? Is he okay..? Is everyone there okay..? Did the Void member come back to finish the job..?_

 _Does he know that I failed him..?_

"Even so, that espeon… He looked at life, saw it give him a hard time, and attacked it head on. He has such an optimistic attitude, despite so much fear and doubt he has in his head. I'm not sure how exactly he… deals with his stress, but you're not the only one, Charm." I felt myself tense more, and I closed my eyes. _Damn it… Why did I have to think about that..?_

"Listen, Charm, if you ever want to even try it, talking about your past, I'll always be here to listen. And not just me, Naru will too. We'll always try our very best to help and support you, so even if you feel like you can't talk about it, just know we have your back." I wanted to show Charm that he wasn't alone, that we could help him. That I wouldn't fail someone else.

Charm came closer to me and buried his head in the side of my body, letting out sobs, which escalated into him crying. I just kept my paw on his back and held him there, not wanting to look down at him. Although, at this point, I don't know if it was for him or for me. "T-Thank you…" I heard Charm barely get out between cries. I didn't respond, I just wanted to let him release his emotions. Arceus knows that's important… I knew that better than most.

This continued for about ten minutes of silence, other than the cries coming from Charm, there was nothing. I was okay with just letting Charm get everything out, no matter how long it ended up taking. I was doing exactly what Naru did with me, and that helped more than I can possible describe, I was more than willing to do the same for Charm. _I won't fail you… I promise._

After Charm finished sobbing, he moved away from me a little bit, but this time, he had a smile on his face. "Thank you… but I think you should go in and get some sleep now. I can keep watch." He said, and I shook my head, also putting on a small smile.

"Sorry Charm, but you can barely see, and you should get some sleep. I'm okay out here." I told him. I really was okay out here by myself, and I wanted Charm to get some rest, but I had no idea why he was being so stubborn.

"B-But you haven't gotten any sleep either! It would be good for you to get some!"

"Same to you Charm, you need it more than me."

"You're guests here though! I should be the one who needs to stay and watch!"

"But we're here to help you, no?"

Charm and I went back and forth for a bit, him desperately trying to get me to go to sleep for some reason. _I appreciate the concern, but you need sleep…_ "Charm, in the end, nothing you do will get me to switch places with you, so why don't you go to Naru and Shiro to sleep? You have a big day tomorrow, remember?" Charm was getting a new home tomorrow after all, he needed his rest.

"I guess… But if you get tired Mr. Kuro, come wake me up and I'll switch with you!" Charm told me with a bright smile.

"I promise that I will Charm." I said, returning his smile. "I'll see you in the morning, Charm!"

"Right! Goodnight Mr. Kuro!" Charm bowed his head down and went back inside of his home with the others. I turned back and looked blankly ahead into the night again. Charm was a pleasant pokemon to talk to, he had the standard curiosity that any child would have, and he was incredibly polite, which was a great trait for him to have. I liked talking to Charm, I just wish that it didn't bring in… other memories.

 _He reminds me of Shine…_ I sighed to myself loudly. I couldn't get Shine out of my head now, I kept thinking back to the point where I just… left because I was distraught. I owed it to Shine to at least tell him what happened, but I didn't… I ran like a coward instead. I couldn't face Shine after what happened… After I knew what I had to do… I just couldn't. _I'm not making that mistake again… not now, not ever._

I took a few more breaths, calming down. Thinking about Shine made me feel guilty, and distressed me. I wanted to go back and see if he was okay… if only Myriad wasn't so far away… _Maybe I can get a free day to go there sometime in the future…_ "Kuro~~"

I turned my head to melodic voice that came from rather close to my ear. I saw Naru sitting down next to me, giving me a blinding smile. "That was a great talk Kuro! You did a good job!" She exclaimed to me.

I tried to smile back at her. "Thank you, I tried to make him feel better… hopefully it works out...:" I said, looking to the ground for a second. _I hope this works… Wait… How long was she…_ "Naru, how long were you listening to us..?"

"Since the veeerryyyy beginning." Naru said playfully. I instantly felt my body warm up, and I looked down again. _Since the beginning…_

"R-Right… since the beginning…" I instantly felt more embarrassed than I could possibly describe. I didn't say anything too flustering, but I definitely said some stuff… some stuff that I'm not sure I'd be able to say to her face… _Geez… Why do you have to be so stealthy sometimes…_

"That was really sweet, Kuro." She said appreciatively. I just kept looking down, probably blushing. What could I say really? I wasn't planning on her hearing that… not in the slightest… _At least that's all can embarrass me right now…_ I was just about to take a breath and compose myself, but then, I felt Naru quickly plant her lips on my cheek for a second, before pulling away.

The gesture made me flinch, and if I wasn't blushing before, I certainly was now. _Why did she…_ I couldn't finish my thoughts, I was way too flustered. I also felt my heart start to race, which hadn't been happening until semi-recently, but it was very distracting. My muscles got all stiff, and I had a hard time even bringing my head up. With enough effort, I managed to look at Naru, and despite the fact that she was the one who did this in the first place, she was just as red as me.

"N-Naru, what was…" I couldn't finish my sentence. Looking at Naru made it even harder for me to process my thoughts. I just ended up looking down again, not being able to say anything fluently. _I must look like such an idiot right now…_

Naru just giggled from next to me. "S-Sorry, I couldn't help it…" She started laughing a bit harder, which made my body tense even more. I sighed, but let my mouth grow into a smile. _I didn't… dislike that… But that doesn't mean I'm letting her get away with it…_

I broke through the stiffness of my body and, with my heart still racing, I leaned into Naru with the side of my body and nuzzled the side of her neck with my head. I felt my own body heat up even more, but it was worth it to fire back at Naru. whenever she did something to embarrass me like that, I always did something to counter, though, usually it was just with words… not this…

I glanced up at Naru with the corner of my eye and saw that she was acting just as I was a second ago, I probably took her off guard with my gesture, just as she did with me. "K-Kuro, what a-are you…" I didn't move from where I was.

"P-Payback." Was all I could get out, and even then I barely did. I just wanted to show her that she's not the only one who can do that to her partner on a whim. That was the only reason… I think. This was just for payback… right? I had a hard time moving though, as in, I really didn't want to. _I'm just doing this as payback… right?_

"I-It's N-Not over yet!" Naru leaned into me and pushed me onto to the ground, landing beside me. She lifted her head and put it on my neck, laying herself down on the ground, using me as a pillow of sorts. I didn't think it was possible for me to blush any deeper, but Naru didn't take very long to toss that aside. I felt my heartrate pick up even more, and I hoped that Naru didn't feel it. She rubbed her head into my neck, making me just look into the distance, trying to not give Naru any other kind of reaction.

"Y-You win…" I said, trying to end the back and forth we had, despite the fact that I kind of… liked it.

Naru giggled again. "G-Guess you couldn't quite keep up!" I was still looking away, but I started smiling again. _You're really something Naru…_

"I-I guess not…" I said, still smiling. Naru didn't move, despite our little challenge being over. Not that I minded though, in fact, part of me really just didn't want her to move. A big part of me. So, I just rested on the ground with Naru laying on me. Some time passed with us just laying in silence, nothing being said. We were just enjoying each other's company.

After a while, I felt my mind drift off, and I fell asleep with a smile.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Alright… Another slow update, and once more, I'm sorry… I have a lot going on right now, I don't think I should really go into detail, but if anyone is really curious, them send me a PM and I can tell you all about it, I just don't think I should say it here is all. But hey, another chapter is done, more reading can take place, so yay!

Also, for those who are also reading the story that I am co-writing with CharTheLittleCharmander, that will be on a bit of a hiatus for a while, I'm not sure how long, and again, I can't really say why, but there is a very good reason behind it, I assure you. If you have any questions on the matter, then I'd be happy to answer whatever I can, but for privacy reasons, there's only so much I can say about that. I'll talk about anything when it comes to what's going on with me, but when it comes to that story, I'm sorry to say that I need to hold off.

As usual, thank you to everyone who reads, PMs, reviews, the works. I love every bit of it, and it means a lot to me! It would also help me out a lot right now, so don't be shy! Thank you to my beta reader for cleaning up my chapters as usual! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	31. A Goal

**Shine**

You know, I haven't taken refuge in this town for very long, but the streets already felt so… empty to me. Not literally of course, there were tons of pokemon of all different species walking by me, minding whatever business they had, but that didn't really matter. My mind was just sort of… gone. I could never really think about anything, not without getting distracted at least. Now, not a day went by when I didn't think about the information that Cyan gave me a little while ago. I couldn't get it out of my head… I was barely able to accept that it happened in the first place. Even after going there myself… Seeing all of it right in front of me… still wasn't enough for me to accept what had happened.

The place hadn't been cleaned yet, and I went back there over and over, seeing the same thing every time, except the bodies became less and less recognizable. I also got sick every time, but I stopped caring after the second visit. The condition of my body wasn't a concern of mine anymore, not at all. In fact… I couldn't really think of much that I was concerned with at this point. The rest of my siblings that Cyan was watching didn't take it any better than me… probably worse. A lot of them won't even move, and although my mind is just blank ninety percent of the time, at least I can will myself to leave and walk around. I'm the only one who can though. All of the others just don't do anything but sit there, looking like soulless shells of pokemon. Well, I probably looked pretty soulless myself, so It's not like I could judge them for any part of it in the first place. The only difference was that I was walking down the street of a town, as opposed to sitting in a building, just slowly wasting away.

I pretty much memorized the layout of Myriad, as I've spent quite a bit of time here now, and whenever I felt troubled, I just sort of walked around it. I also liked to train my stamina by sprinting around the town as fast as I possibly could, which was a good exercise really. It helped a lot, but I haven't done it since I got the news. I couldn't focus on running… not for more than ten seconds before my mind went elsewhere. After my mind went there, I couldn't do anything. All I could do is walk steadily, and sulk in my mind. I knew this had to change, I knew that something needed to happen that would make me feel different, that would make me accept what had happened, but I just… couldn't. I couldn't find the motivation, I had no idea where to go or what to do now. Before, I had a goal, but now… I just didn't know what to do…

While walking through Myriad, I noticed someone on the side of the road get shoved, a nuzleaf was pushed into a small alleyway by an electabuzz. That wasn't an uncommon sight in the past few days. Maybe it's always been like this, and I just never noticed because I was usually sprinting by everything, not paying too much attention. Now that I actually was, this place really wasn't too pure of an area… I saw a lot of pokemon get dragged away by others time and time again, but I could never will myself to try and help, I was too… distracted. I honestly would help if I got into the mindset, I had the ability to do so, I just… couldn't tell myself that it was worth it.

The nuzleaf tried to escape, but the electabuzz grabbed them by the neck and dragged them back into the alleyway. I glanced around me and took note of how nobody was even paying them any mind. I would call it gross that this was happening… but I was right there with them. I wasn't doing anything to help, I just stood still, unable to will myself to do anything for a long while. I couldn't think of something to motivate me… and I hated myself for it, but I couldn't deny it at all. _I should help… but I just…_

" _I'll look forward to the day you share this symbol with me."_

A sentence echoed in my head… one that came from someone I respected a lot… I felt myself take a step forward, towards what looked like a mugging. _Where did you go that day..?_

" _Okay, I need all of you to calm down."_

 _He said it so calmly… Even though he was scared too…_

" _I'll make sure everyone is safe, but for now, I need you to be brave. I know you don't know where you are, or what you're doing here, but I need you to stay strong."_

I felt my body move forward more. _So what if you don't have any motivation? That's not what matters! Why have I been hesitating so much!?_ I mentally scolded myself. This wasn't the first time I thought back to the two experiences I had with Kuro. In all honesty… thinking back to how he acted both times… that was the only thing keeping me from… doing not good things to myself out of frustration. I hated thinking about that more than anything, but with my motivation gone, and with half of my family getting taken away in the blink of an eye, I didn't see a way out. Not a good one at least. _I'm such an idiot…_

I found myself dashing at the alleyway, these things were way too common in a town so big, and you couldn't even tell them apart. I turned the corner to the entrance and saw the two pokemon from earlier, the electabuzz pushing the nuzleaf into the one of the walls in either side of the rather narrow alleyway. The nuzleaf fell to the ground, groaning in pain. _What is even the point of hurting pokemon like this…_ I ran up behind the electabuzz, and kicked him farther down the alleyway. He slid on his feet and turned to me, giving me a nasty glare, and a growl. _He knows that I want to stop him…_

I crouched down, evenly spreading my paws over the ground under me to support my body mass. I took a deep breath, readying myself to fight. _I've… never done this before…_

Before I could think any more, the electabuzz ran at me, lowering his fist under his stomach, looking like he wanted to uppercut me. I dashed forward and headbutted the electabuzz in the stomach, pushing him back. I then concentrated on the gem stationed on the center of my forehead, and conjured a shadow ball, shooting it off and connecting with the head of the electabuzz, making them slide back more and grunt, but not fall over. _I… I hit him…_

As the electabuzz was recovering, I thought back to that day again. The day where I was taken into some kind of ship, and Kuro had to defend me, along with my siblings. I focused on everything Kuro did back then, every way his body moved, every way he created an opening and then attacked. I tried my very best to imitate it… and it looks like I pulled it off for the first move. _Now don't screw it up!_

The electabuzz shot off a large bolt at me, that I rolled away from, while it singed my fur. I jumped up one of the walls on either side of me and pushed myself off of it, getting above my opponent. As I fell, I took a breath, and focused on my gem again. Once I was about to land in front of the electabuzz, he attempted to punch me again, but I released a powerful wave from my gem, forcefully sending him into the wall behind him, while I made a less than graceful landing. I recovered quickly, and looked up at my opponent, who was now right on top of me. He reached both of his hands out and grabbed me, squeezing hard enough for all of my bones to crack. I let out a shout, not ready for the pain. I then felt small shocks all over my fur, which wasn't a very good sign. My instincts told me to bite, so I did. I bit the hand of the electabuzz as hard as I could, getting an uncomfortable sensation of metallic tasting liquid in my mouth, although I was released.

As soon as I hit the ground, I spit out the blood, and took a deep breath, while my eyes began to glow a calm yellow. I focused all that I could and pushed the electabuzz back again as hard as I could, knocking him into the wall. Blood began to leak out from his back, and drip to the ground. _Did I… hurt him too much..?_ I took a breath, because it looked like he stopped rushing me and trying to attack. At first, I thought I knocked him out, but he had his eyes opened, and was just groaning. I stepped back, wanting to check if the nuzleaf that was here was okay from the attacks that he took, but instead, I felt a hard, sharp scratch on my back, which made me screech and fall forward. I immediately forced myself to turn around and back up more, only to see the nuzleaf I was just helping standing over me with a grin.

"Thanks for the help, kid." The nuzleaf said in a really high voice, higher than any other I've heard before. _What..? Why is she hurting me..? What did I…_ Just as I was thinking, the electabuzz from earlier ran passed me and slammed their knee into the nuzleaf, causing her to cough.

She then shot off a bunch of seeds from her body, each one scraping against the fur of the electabuzz, and taking off bits of it, along with his skin as well. _What is… going on..?_ I shook my head and pushed myself up, despite the burning pain on my back begging me to do otherwise. I looked up to see the nuzleaf kick the electabuzz in the head, and then he retaliated with a punch to the stomach. The two then traded blows back and forth for a bit, and I just stood still, barely sure of what was happening in the first place. I had no idea what was going on, what I should do, who was the good one, who was the bad one, I had no idea. I started to breath heavier, feeling the fear I had within me really rise to the surface. I was just so confused, I had no idea what I could possibly do… so after a few seconds of mental panic, I did the logical thing. Slam my head into the wall of course.

The impact dazed me, but also cleared my mind, making me only focus on the pain. I then shook it off, and watched as the electabuzz got pushed back, and seemed to really be fighting a losing battle here. The nuzleaf was aggressively pounding the electabuzz, and it looked like this wasn't going to last much longer. I still just had no idea what to do though… I had no idea who I should be helping here. I took a close look at the expressions of both pokemon, seeing a stare that screamed bloodlust on the nuzleaf, and a pained, almost angry expression on the electabuzz. _She's going to kill him… I can't let that happen!_

While the nuzleaf was still wailing on the electabuzz, I ran up to the two, sliding passed the electabuzz and looking at the nuzleaf. My back was burning like nothing else, but if anything, the pain helped to distract me. Not only from my fear, but from… other things. I took a breath and jumped to the nuzleaf, headbutting her stomach. She backed off a bit and glared at me. "Who's side are you on!?" She shouted, still sounding very high pitched.

"I don't know!" I shouted back, my voice sounding a little raspy. I hadn't been talking much lately, so I wasn't surprised. The nuzleaf quickly ran at me, and I paused for a second, feeling my fear build up again, but I broke out of it quickly and took a step back, my gem beginning to glow. "J-Just stop!" I shot off a green and yellowish beam, that moved in a spiral pattern. It connected with the nuzleaf, and she released an scream filled with agony, with made my body tense.

She fell onto her back and started to breath hard, not liking what I just hit her with. _What did I just hit her with..?_ I shot my attack off on auto pilot to be honest, I have no real clue what I just did, but it was effective, so I wasn't about to complain. The scream she released was still ringing in my ears though… I didn't like that, not one bit. Listening to other pokemon in pain wasn't a good feeling.

I spent some time staring at the now downed nuzleaf, and it didn't look like she was getting up anytime soon. I did, however, notice that she had a small pouch hanging on the side of her body. It didn't look too significant, it was just something that I took note of. While I was curious about it, I was more curious about whatever just happened. I mean… what was that? I had no idea who either of these pokemon were, and I very well could have still been in danger. I turned to look at the electabuzz to see if he was alright, but he was already walking passed me, observing the nuzleaf. He grabbed the pouch that she had strapped to her body, and then looked straight at me.

I felt myself shrink under his gaze. I had no idea who this was, but I can't deny that I just attacked him, stopped to attack the pokemon he was attacking, before turning to him again, and just staring. I had no idea what this was leading to, but this guy didn't have the nicest of faces on right now, and I can't say I really blame him after I nearly got him killed. I did help him though, so maybe he wouldn't be too angry..? I took a deep breath and readied myself to ask the obvious question, but before that, I needed to say something else. I bowed my head. "I'm sorr-" I felt his foot collide with the side of my body, sending my back directly into one of the buildings that made up the walls of the alleyway we were located in.

I let out a hoarse, pained shriek and fell to the ground. My entire body began to ache, and my back felt like it was in the middle of an inferno. I was shaking, and I couldn't make myself stand up. I glanced upwards at the electabuzz, still unable to really move at all. "You nearly got me killed you idiot!" He yelled in a gruff voice. He was ticked, like, really ticked. I could tell by his tone. I still didn't blame him for being angry, but kicking me into a wall was most definitely not necessary.

"I-I'm sorry…" I managed to get out in a pained voice. I was still shaking pretty badly, and I still couldn't really move. All I could do is hope that my apology was good enough for him. He wasn't young, but he didn't sound old either. I hoped he was older so he'd be more understanding, but then again, maybe it would work the opposite way. Regardless, I just hoped he wasn't fuming at me anymore.

"You're 'sorry?' You think that's enough!? I almost died!" He walked to me and gave me another hard kick to the ribs, making me screech again. It was louder this time though, because I felt two of them snap. I curled up a little more, but every small move I made just increased the pain flowing through my body. So I just started taking heavy breaths and layed still while gritting my teeth. "Who do you think you are to get in the way!? That should've been easy!"

"I-I-I'm… sorry…" Was all I could manage. It hurt like nothing else just to talk, and I felt my eyes start to tear up. I wasn't sure if that was the pain talking to me, or my fear though. "I-I'm really… sorry…" He just glared at me.

"You're pathetic." He drew his arm back, and I closed my eyes and braced myself. Two seconds passed and I was expecting to have another rib shattered, but I didn't feel any new pain. My back was still on fire, and my ribs were no longer complete, but the blow I was expecting to feel next never came. I slowly opened my eyes, and saw the electabuzz's arm constricted by… something. I couldn't tell, my vision was blurry for just a few reasons. Whatever it was though, there was more than one, and they were white and blue. Those weren't the only colors, but that's all I could see.

"Hey! Way too far!" The electabuzz got yanked away from me while I heard a female voice shout out. I was barely conscious of what was happening to me, like, to the point where I just wanted to close my eyes and see if I could pass out. That would just make everything easier. Sadly though, my mind kept going, and I kept processing information, despite not wanting to really. I was about to give a shot at moving again, but I felt something wrap around my body, and then another of the same thing begin to wrap around my head. I felt a comfortable warmth begin to wash over me, and I felt my body relax. It felt so… relieving. Like I was suddenly at total peace of both body and mind. My pain then began to slowly sap away as I calmed down. I kept my eyes shut and let myself naturally breath, as if I was sleeping.

"The kid nearly got me killed, you shouldn't help him." I heard the electabuzz say. _I said I was sorry…_ I assumed that whoever stopped him was a companion of his, but I couldn't be too sure. Whoever she was, she still spoke against him and got him to stop before he broke more of my ribs, so I honestly didn't care at this point, I was just happy that my body was intact.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You were about to break him!" She retorted at the electabuzz. _You're not wrong…_

"So what? He's none of our concern. I have the crystal thing, that's all that matters." _Crystal thing..?_

"You're disgusting, you know that? Keep doing things like this and I'm blasting you to the nearest medical ward."

"And what makes you think I won't fight back?" _Because we need to be more violent nowadays…_

"Why does that matter? You're a weakling, the weakest one out of all of us. You pick on anyone who you can, go after the easiest possible targets, and even then, you nearly screwed it up! I can blast you away at any time and you know it." _Ouch…_

The electabuzz stopped talking after that, probably taken down by this girl's words. I was grateful for that. I may have been sorry, but breaking my ribs and irritating my wounds sort of took away some of those feelings. It's hard to be sorry to someone you don't know after they just impaired you from moving without extreme pain to couple it.

After a few minutes of me resting in silence, I felt the… whatever was wrapped around my body slowly leave me, removing some of the comforting warmth, but most of my pain was now gone. I opened my eyes while on the ground, and lifted my neck up, not feeling my body scream at me. Sure, it still hurt, but I could move now, which was a much needed improvement. The burning on my back also subsided for the most part, now just having a dull ache that was barely noticeable. _How was I healed so fast..?_

I pushed myself off of the ground and stood up on all four of my paws, stretching my limbs, feeling each one pop and crack. I shook my head and looked in the direction the voices were coming from earlier. I saw the electabuzz a little ways away, and right in front of me, stood a sylveon, retracting her ribbons. _I guess that's what was wrapped around me…_ The sylveon looked at me and smiled. "Hi there! Are you doing okay..?" She asked me with a friendly tone.

I took a second to collect myself before responding. "Yes… I think so... " I bowed my head down. "Thank you for helping me." I didn't want to look up, scared that the electabuzz would be giving me another hateful glare. I don't know why I dreaded it so much, but he suddenly scared me a lot. Maybe it was his brutality, but I didn't even want to look in his direction. I still had to give my thanks though, this sylveon did just save me a very, very painful walk home.

"No problem! If anything, I should be apologizing to you." She bowed her head too. "I'm sorry…" I looked at her and tilted my head.

"Why are you-" I coughed a little. "Why are you apologizing..?" My voice still sounded kind of dreary, like I was someone recovering from a bad cold.

"Because my idiot of an associate over here just hurt you really badly." She looked up at me. "We didn't mean you any harm, this guy just has a really bad temper, and I probably should've gone with him from the start." She let out a sigh.

I saw the electabuzz look away, which admittedly satisfied me a bit, but then I shook my head. "Don't worry, it's not-" I coughed again. "It's not your fault." I kind of wanted to avoid conversation because, not only my voice, but I haven't really felt up to it for a long time. That being said, I didn't want to be rude to the pokemon that just saved me so much pain, so I could deal with it.

"Hey, are you okay? You sound a little… meh." _What does that even mean..?_

"I'm alright, just haven't been-" I coughed. "I haven't been talking much lately, so my voice needs to warm up." _I'm also still feeling pretty down, but she doesn't need to know that._

"What's been keeping you from talking?" She asked and tilted her head. I had really hoped this didn't get brought up of all things, but I kind of led to it on my own…

"I'd rather… not talk about it." I said and looked away. I felt bad for not telling her, seeing as she just healed me, but I wasn't too sure I could even talk about it without choking up, so I wasn't ready to try really. Plus… I didn't even know this pokemon's name.

"Oh! Sorry about that, didn't mean to bring unwanted memories up." She bowed her head again.

"No… It's not your fault." I said, still averting my gaze. I started to think about everyone else again, and I pushed the thoughts away as soon as they began to clutter my mind. I couldn't think about them right now… I got them out of my head for a little bit, and I wanted them to stay out of my head for now.

"Well, on a brighter note then, what's your name?" I looked back at the sylveon, and she was smiling at me brightly. I could tell that it was a little bit forced, but I appreciated the effort at making the mood lighter.

"Sh-" I coughed again. "Shine." I answered. She let out a small giggle, to which I tilted my head, but it ended up being brushed off.

"Nice to meet you Shine! My name is Crescent!" She bowed her head. "I hope we can get along well!" I nodded towards her, and as much as I wanted to give her a smile, I couldn't force myself.

"Nice to meet you too, Crescent." I bowed my head like she did. _Although, assuming you don't live here, we probably won't be 'meeting' much after this._

I coughed a few times again, and then shook my head to snap myself out of it. Crescent gave me a concerned look. "Are you sure you're okay..? I understand not talking for a while, but that sounds like an actual cough…" she took a step closer to me. "Have you been taking care of yourself..?" I almost let out a fake chuckle in response, but didn't want to be rude to someone who had been so nice to me.

"Not… particularly." I answered. It's not like Cyan didn't provide for us. If anything, he did his very best and I appreciated that a lot, but I haven't really been eating like I should be… or resting normally… "I'll be okay though." Crescent just looked at me with an unimpressed stare.

"Oh come on, I met you less than ten minutes ago and I can already see through you…" She sighed, and I got a little annoyed admittedly. "You need to work on making sure you're healthy, Shine. Proper health is important! Especially because there's something bothering you!" She nodded her head a few times and smiled.

"Listen, I'm sure I'll be okay. I can handle myself." I tried to assure, resisting another cough. Now I felt like I couldn't show her that I was feeling bad at all. Or at least, try not to. She just gave me a skeptical look.

"Can you really? You look like a mess right now, and that's without the beating that was just given to you. You're not really showing much emotion either, so are you really okay, Shine?" Crescent took an authoritative step forward. _Why is she prodding me so much..? I haven't known her for half an hour…_

"I… I can." I said, still resisting the same cough, though I felt like it was about to explode from my chest. Crescent took another step forward and just stared at me. I stared back. We stayed in the same position for a long time. I felt like she was testing me, but on what? I had no idea, so I just kept on staring. Once some more time passed however, I pulled my head away and started coughing furiously. It went on for about thirty seconds, which was longer than any other coughing fit I've had. Of course, holding back didn't help.

"You need some help, Shine. It's obvious by looking at you." I wanted to give a retort to Crescent, but nothing came to mind. I mean, it's not like there was anything I could retort with, was there? She just said exactly what the truth was. I needed help, and I looked like a mess. There was nothing false about that. But for some reason, I still felt the need to push help away.

"I-I can handle myself… I have to." I started to cough a little more. "I need to for my siblings." That last part kind of slipped out.

"So that's what it is…" Crescent looked like she pondered in thought for a few seconds. Once those few seconds were over, she brightly smiled. "Let me ask you something Shine. Do you have a goal in mind right now? Anything you're trying to accomplish?"I thought about it for a second, and… no. I really didn't. I was just mourning, and that was it really. I never tried to do anything new or think of what I wanted to do next. I had a goal before, then I had a bombshell get dropped on me, and that goal was dissipated along with it.

"No… I don't really…" I said, a little shyly. I wasn't sure why, but admitting that embarrassed me.

"Well, there are a lot of ways to help your emotional state, and one of the biggest ones is to have a goal that you work towards!" She said excitedly, though, I didn't get much of the point.

"But I don't really have anything to work towards… So how does that help me at all..?" I asked curiously. It kind of sounded rude, which wasn't my intention, but it was just the truth. I didn't have a goal anymore… so how did this help me really..? She wasn't wrong… but… "I don't have a goal…"

Crescent walked a little closer and put a ribbon on my head. I looked up at her and she looked back.

"How about I give you one then?"

* * *

Hello readers!

Oh my… I got a chapter out on time!? HOORAH! And then it's… a… short one… I'M SORRY! OkAy, I swear, I have an excuse! The next part of the story would've pushed this chapter and made it rather… disjointed. I felt like it was too much of a jump from one event to another to keep it going, so I know what I'm doing for the next few chapters, so YAY! My story plans are finally falling into place! Kind of… Give it time. :p

On another note, I want to say hello to a certain person reading this! (I think you know who you are…) I want to let you know that not talking to you like I have been feels… odd. I got used to it and transitioning back is just strange :p But I hope you're doing well! And Sis is still hanging in there, so don't worry!

Anywho, I want to thank everyone who has sent a PM, a Review, all of that stuff. I'm still kind of in a rough patch right now, so I'm sorry if this chapter suffers at all because of it, but any messages I get from you guys, any messages, any reviews at all, any communication… It really keeps me going! I love all of it! Thank you!

See You Next Chapter!

[Hey guys, if you find any mistakes I overlooked, please feel free to send me a PM and tell me where it is. Anyways, have a good day!]


	32. Step one

**Luna**

There was some sort of odd satisfaction I got from watching my experiments fail. Like, I wanted them to work, and of course we needed them to expand the Void further, but the way that my subjects always died in agony made my heart race in delight. However, my lack of progress as of late was beginning to get to me. In order to keep on going, each experiment took a certain amount of various resources from the region, as well as whatever machinery was needed to implant any augmentations inside of someone. _And there lies the problem..._

The problem was, some of these resources we needed were quite rare. One in particular, a green crystal-like rock. Even when you did manage to get ahold of a bit, it was little more than the size of a pebble. Yet, one pebble could create thousands of experiments. All it took to power an experiment was a speck of dust from the rock. That's all. I've only found two in the past, and both were used to make all of the progress that the Void had made up to this day. _I'm beginning to think that the element I need is exhausted… If only I had a name for the thing…_

I sighed and continued going through files on my desk, which was starting to get worn down from constant use, but I wouldn't need it much longer anyway, so I couldn't care less. Aven had been picking up a lot of information as of late, a lot of very useful information. He wasn't the only one though. Even though she failed, Grace had been able to gather a lot on one particular pokemon I'm after as well. Not only that, but I learned about his partner, who I didn't need, but it was good to know that she was also capable of surviving against Grace. Granted, the leafeon probably wasn't putting forth an ounce of her effort, or anywhere near what she was fully capable of, but even so, her abilities rivaled Aven's and my own, so any amount of survival was rather impressive.

I moved Grace up the rankings a bit, putting her above the Assassin in terms of combat ability. Granted, both of them were not to be trifled with by any means, but Grace had definitely been improving, despite her… less than optimal work ethic. I thought back to when Grace was first being matured for combat, and recollected on a decision I made with her. _It's hard to believe that she was normal at one point… I wonder what her sister is up to..?_

I continued to go through my files, coming across some rather old ones, but ones that I kept regardless. _Storm… And Blade…_ I started skimming through all of the data I had on the pair. _These two really could have caused so many problems… I'm glad we took action._

Storm and Blade… Oh those two had quite something going for them. They even figured out my identity before I attacked them, which was rather impressive considering that I did nothing to lead to that kind of revelation. I fondly remembered the day they both confronted me about it at the same time, and both ended up getting stopped in the end. They then forgot all about me. Or rather, I made them forget, because I wasn't done with the Nest at that point, and I knew those two wouldn't keep their mouths shut. If I just killed them then the others in the Nest would be on to me, namely the damn bisharp, so I didn't want to take that risk. It all worked out in the end though, those two ended up dead, I got to torture their son which is yet another fond memory I have from them, and I even didn't have to deal with the Nest in response, because for some reason, Kuro seems so hesitant to even foster the idea of the leaders listening to him, being a recruit. I was a little thankful for that, only a little. It meant that our cover wouldn't be blown, so that was a small convenience, but nothing more than that really.

While turning through the files, I came across an old picture, including myself, Storm and Blade, and a variety of other members. I glanced at a magmortar and electivire that I also vaguely remember being problems for me, but I made the Assassin go after them, so in then end, it wasn't an issue. Observing the picture closely, I looked at the two accessories that Storm and Blade respectively wore. A deep blue scarf on the vaporeon, and a beautiful necklace with a shining green gem on the leafeon. I stared at the necklace for a few seconds, giving a small sigh. _If only we knew where he hid that thing before he died…_

On said necklace was precisely the material I needed to continue and perfect my experiments, but Blade wasn't wearing it when Kai stabbed him through the heart. I had no idea where it was really, even though I assumed it had to be somewhere in the place that group called home, I couldn't locate it. They had a crate in there with a bunch of other nicknacks, but nothing to do with that necklace. I found Storm's scarf, but not the necklace. _Figures I find the one I don't need…_

I sighed to myself, really wishing that I was able to find the necklace back then. Everything would be going so perfectly now, and my experiments would be making rapid progress! Of course, life wasn't that easy. If I wanted to play with so many lives, then I suppose I'd have to work for it. Not that I minded work, it was just irritating that the one thing stopping me was a little rock that I could have gotten a long time ago, had I searched more, or interrogated the kid more. I took a breath and closed my eyes.

Whenever I was irritated, there was one thought that always bought a smile back to my face. Although, Grace says that it's 'an absolutely positively terrifying one,' I still smile regardless. It was easy to think about too, seeing as it was connected so heavily to the subject of my stress. My rings began to dimly light up, but I suppressed them immediately. I didn't like indulging in my pleasures unless I had no work to do, and that wasn't going to be the case until I located this damn gem. _Perhaps it's time I get this information a bit more… forcefully._

I hopped down from my desk and closed my eyes, trying to get into the mind of my second in command. It didn't take too long, and all I had to say was one word. _Interject._ I sent the signal out, and then stopped focusing. I know that Aven heard it, he never missed anything I sent him telepathically, not once. I then turned my attention to the door that led to my office, and walked towards it. _I wonder where number five is wandering around..?_

* * *

 **Naru**

I was laying down, a very soft sensation of grass under me, and an even more so one of Kuro's fur under my head. My body was completely relaxed, and despite the fact I was well aware that it was morning, I just didn't want to move. I listened to Kuro's light breathing, signalling that he was still asleep. His body slowly rose up, and lowered back down as he calmly inhaled and exhaled. I closed my eyes again, relishing in the feeling I had.

I thought about the actions I took last night, and I admit, it was rather… impulsive. I had no idea what came over me all of a sudden, but… it happened, and Kuro didn't seem to hate it, so I was happy. He even tried to get me back like he usually does… and it worked. Maybe because my mind was already on cloud nine before he tried to, but a simple nuzzle to my neck made me practically freeze in place, which was odd to me. It's not like he hasn't done that before, so I had no idea why him doing it again made my body react like that. _Maybe I was just a little… excited? Don't know._

Quite a long time of me just idly laying down passed, I was enjoying myself a bit too much for me to have any incentive to move. Plus, Kuro was still asleep, and I didn't want to wake him up on accident. It was a little odd though, because he always, and I mean always woke up before me. He was able to control his sleeping habits way better than I was, so the fact that he was totally passed out right now was sort of unordinary. I wasn't really against it though… I could use him as a pillow this way, and his fur was very, very soft. I found myself nuzzling his neck every now and then, right above his scarf, kind of like he did to me the day prior. I couldn't really help myself… and seeing as he wasn't awake, there wasn't anything stopping me.

I stopped trying to locate where my internal clock was and instead hesitantly lifted my head off of Kuro and stretched my body out. I not-so gracefully yawned and shook my head, trying to leave the trance I was just trapped in more than I willing to admit. I looked down at Kuro, curled up a little, steadily breathing. He looked so peaceful… and cute.

I got over yet another mental block and nudged Kuro a few times, trying to get him up for the day. After all, it was probably much later than we usually wake up, judging by where the sun was located. It was also a little cloudy though, looking like it might rain later. _Or better yet, it might snow later!_ After I pawed at kuro for a little longer, he curled a little tighter, and slowly opened one of his eyes, looking at me. I smiled down at him. "Morning Kuro!" I pet his head a little.

He took a second to realize what was happening and shook his head. "Naru..?" He slowly pushed himself off the ground and yawned. "You're up before me..?" Kuro then glanced around the area and looked towards the sky, presumably looking for the position of the sun. "Was I sleeping this whole time..?" I responded to Kuro with a big nod and a smile.

"Yep! Looks like you slept in!" I told him cheerily. I was in a good mood this morning for… reasons. Kuro tilted his head and looked at me, seeming dumbfounded.

"Really..? When's the last time I did that..?" _Come to think of it… He was probably on such a tight schedule from when he lived on his own… It's kinda hard to break a habit that you've had for around eight years._ Kuro stretched his muscles, similarly to how I did right before I woke him up. "Well, no harm in getting extra sleep I suppose."

I chuckled a little bit. "Plus, I got to wake up before you! That's never happened before! It's a little exciting!" I exclaimed, happy to be on my four paws before Kuro for once.

Kuro smiled back at me. "I'm not sure why you're so happy about that, but I won't shoot you down." I nodded happily to Kuro's statement. He began to walk back towards Charm's place of residence, and I followed suit. We both entered the dirt home through the rather old and creaky door, and looked at Charm and Shiro, who were both awake, chatting with each other a little bit. It was nice to see Shiro talking to someone, and she wasn't even stuttering, meaning she was comfortable around Charm. She warmed up to him rather quickly, but it made sense, seeing as they were most likely around the same age. _I think at least… Still don't know exactly how old either of them are…_

Shiro looked in our direction and smiled, as did Charm. "Good morning Mr. Kuro and Miss Naru!" Charm cheerfully greeted. I smiled brightly at him, loving the optimism he had, even after the heavy conversations yesterday. _Still don't really need to formalities though..._

"Good morning!" I greeted back. "Sleep well?" Charm and Shiro both nodded with smiles. _Looks like everyone is in a good mood today… That's awesome!_ I walked over and pet both of their heads, letting out a little giggle. Charm looked like he glanced at Kuro, and then tilted his head.

"Mr. Kuro..? What's on your neck..?" He asked innocently. I turned around too and looked at Kuro, who just looked confused. I observed him for a second, until coming to a spot around the top of his neck, just above his scarf, where his fur was a very light blue, almost looking white. After thinking for a second, it wasn't very hard to put the reasoning behind this patch together, and once I did, I chuckled a little.

I walked up to Kuro and put a paw on his neck. "I think I frosted over part of your fur by mistake…" I said, stifling a chuckle. He tilted his head and smiled.

"Guess you lost control again, Naru." He said tauntingly. He had a normal smile, but I could tell by his tone that he was still trying to tease me after what happened yesterday… and it worked. I felt my face heat up again and I backed up a little.

Kuro chuckled this time. "I-I… umm…" _And… I'm at a loss…_

"Don't worry about it, Naru. Just playing around." I still just looked down and held the small blush I had.

"Y-You win…" I said in defeat. I could've tackle hugged him or something, but something was holding me back, which was probably the two children behind us. I didn't want to start another war between Kuro and I right in front of them, so I gave in and smiled. Shiro and Charm both started laughing behind me, which made me smile brighter. I looked up at Kuro, who was also smiling. _I'll get you back again… Just wait until we get back to the Nest…_

Kuro walked forward until he was standing next to me and looked at the two younger pokemon. "So Charm, do you want to get looking for your new home now? We should be able to find a spot close to here." He proposed. Charm nodded calmly.

"I-If it's not too much trouble…" He said quietly.

"Course' it's not! We want to help you out Charm!" I exclaimed, probably louder than I needed to. I went to pet his head again. "Why don't we get to it?" He reached up and hugged my neck.

"Thank you!" He happily said, and I nuzzled him as he hugged me, despite the position being just a little bit uncomfortable.

"Let's go then!" I exclaimed, heading for the door that led to the rest of the small surrounding town. Shiro happily jogged over to Kuro and hopped onto his back, making me smile even brighter. I led the way, exiting the small home into the rather poor town that I observed the previous day. Kuro walked up until he was a little bit ahead of me, and Charm kwas on my other side, humming happily. _Today has such a positive atmosphere… I love it!_

I was about to say something else to express my excitement, but I didn't get the chance. I got distracted by something, which led to my happiness being overwritten in about a second.

Kuro had stopped on a dime in front of me, which made me instinctively stop too. I watched Shiro put on a horrified expression, burying her head into the back of Kuro's scarf, letting out a small whimper or two. Kuro glared ahead, not moving. The look he head though… He was angry. That didn't ever happen. I slowly followed his gaze, watching a mr. mime and a mawile walk towards us, and stop about twenty feet away, straight ahead.

There was still a large group of pokemon down the road, and a few passerbys over here every now and then, but I hardly noticed. Instead, I drew some not so good conclusions in my mind from the species of pokemon in front of us, and the reactions given by both Kuro and Shiro. I walked in front of Charm and signaled for him to stay behind me, hoping for two things. One, that he would get the message and not move, and two, that this wasn't who I thought it was. _A mr. mime… and Shiro is terrified…_

I took a look at the mawile too, and this was not a normal mawile. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The first thing that caught my attention were the eyes… Bright, sky blue eyes… that wasn't natural. Beyond that, their body didn't look at all like a normal mawile either. The massive jaw that every mawile had shared a color with the rest of their body, again, not natural. Beyond that, there was a red circle in the center of the mawile's stomach, which was yet another oddity. There's also usually a small circle on the jaw of a mawile… and that was absent. _What in the world am I looking at..?_

I focused not on my curiosity, but now the mr. mime next to the aforementioned mawile. They looked like any other one, though maybe a bit old. Other than age though, there wasn't anything super off-putting about them. That very quickly changed when I saw the nightmare inducing smirk that they had on, and the symbol they had located on their hand. That was enough to put me in a defensive stance in front of Charm, even if the mawile next to him had no expression whatsoever. I was now hyper focused on this mr. mime.

They took a step forward, and Kuro's glare hardened. The mr. mime just looked up and chuckled at him. That chuckle gave me chills. "It's been a little bit, hasn't it..?" He smirked, giving me another chill. _I… Don't like this guy…_

Kuro didn't move, he just stood his ground and glared. "Why are you here..?" He asked, sounding much calmer than I anticipated. He also sounded as if he knew his guy… meaning he was most likely exactly who I had in my head.

"Oh? Your tone is different from last time. Have a surge of confidence or something..?" The mime taunted, and Kuro stayed silent. I had no idea what to do in this situation, so I kept blocking Charm, who was now shaking a little bit. _Guess he read the mood…_

"Come on… Say something else. Don't make this boring for me." The mime sighed, and took a step closer. "Don't make me force you to talk." He said threateningly, and I took a breath, expecting him to try and attack. Time passed though, and he didn't. He and Kuro just kept on staring one another down.

"Answer me first. Why are you here?" Kuro asked again, but he was less calm this time. I could tell easily, but few pokemon could read Kuro like I could.

"That's completely unrelated to me talking to you right now. Actually, I guess you can call this a coincidence. I happened to know that you would most likely be here, and since I was in the area for different matters, I thought I'd pay you a visit." He tilted his head in a creepy fashion. "I wasn't expecting you to have company though… especially not the lovely little vulpix hiding from me right now." Shiro started whimpering more, and Kuro's body tensed, like he was restraining himself.

"You're not quivering in fear this time? What happened? Did Grace nearly killing you make you into some kind of emotionless tank?" _He knows about that… So he knows who I am too…_

"What do you want?" Kuro wasn't wasting his words. I could tell he didn't like this situation any more than I did.

"Nothing really. Although, I'd love to claim the prize that you took away from me some time ago, but I sadly don't have time to deal with you running off like you did last time. Instead, how about I just show you something while I'm here?" He rose one of his arms and pointed at Kuro, to which he crouched.

"Walk." The mime said.

I was confused for a second, but that came to an end once the mawile began to slowly walk towards Kuro. They kept getting closer and closer, until the two were face to face, staring one another down. I could tell Kuro was nervous, but he stood completely still in front of the mawile, not moving. I took a breath, also trying not to flip out right now. I was actually really scared, but seeing as I was the only thing keeping Charm from also losing it, I knew I couldn't let my fear be so evident.

Kuro and the mawile stared one another down, neither one budging at all. _What… is this? What is happening?_ I was so uneasy with the situation. I'd much rather be in imminent danger and know I'm in danger, then the inverse. This was just… unnerving.

"What do you think is happening right now?" The mime asked, making my head dart to him. "It's pretty obvious, but I wanted to give you a taste of what the Void can do to anyone. This mawile hates us with a burning passion you know, and yet, here he is, following my orders, no? Why do you think that is..?" the mime smirked, and I shivered. _There really is… only one real way that could happen… isn't there?_

I looked back at the odd mawile, still having a staring contest with Kuro. I started to build up pressure under my paw as a precaution for whatever might happen here. _He said he didn't have time to chase us around… So is he going to attack..?_

"No answer, eh? Then again, if you have any common sense, then you probably know that we can take complete and full control of pokemon if we really wanted to. It takes some messing around, but it's certainly possible, as you can see." The mime closed his eyes, and I gulped. I felt Charm lean on me a little bit, obviously scared from this whole situation. Arceus knows I was terrified…

"Strike."

The mawile shifted their body weight and swung the massive jaw hanging off of them right at Kuro and Shiro. Kuro turned his head to the mawile and took the brunt of the attack with his skull, making him slide back a decent distance. I immediately released the pressure under my paw, sending a powerful shockwave at the mawile, lifting them off of the ground and pushing them back. I put my head next to Charm and shoved him onto my back, though a little rougher than I would have liked. I felt him grip onto my back, and I ran to stand by Kuro and Shiro. I glanced at Shiro, and she had her head dug down still, and was very visibly shaking.

Kuro shook off the impact from the mawile and stared at the two Void members. I followed his gaze and crouched, ready to do whatever we needed to in order to keep Charm and Shiro safe. I was ready for one of them to attack, but the mime was just standing there… laughing..? "No need to be so on-guard, Ravens. Were you paying attention..? I told him to strike. Not to attack."

I stared at the two of them, putting the pieces together. "You really are controlling him…" I said, almost in disbelief. I knew that's what he was talking about earlier, but that was hard to take at face value. Now that I more closely observed the emotionless gaze of the mawile, and the commands that the mime uttered, it was confirmed in my head now.

"Did you think I was lying? I told you I was here to scare you, and showing you our capabilities was a great way of doing that." The mime turned away and started to walk off, not attracting the attention of any of the other pokemon in the crowd not too far away. The mawile slowly but surely followed him. I was expecting them to turn back, to attack, or to give us another sentence or two… but they just walked off silently. It was really… unnerving. The two of them both made me very uncomfortable.

After waiting a few minutes, watching the two walk out of sight, Kuro let out a deep sigh, most likely releasing the excess fear he had bottled up. I felt my body loosen up a lot more, and I started to control my breathing. _That was… stressful._ Kuro lowered his body and tugged on his scarf a little bit, making Shiro very slowly pick her head up. "Shiro, It's okay now, he's gone." She tumbled off of Kuro's back at the sound of his voice and went to his front, beginning to sob a little bit. The sound pierced my soul, but it made sense, considering who we just encountered.

Kuro gently pet Shiro's head and brought her closer to him. She started to cry a little more and Kuro placed his head atop hers. "Calm down Shiro… Take a deep breath… It's all over now…" Shiro gave a small nod while crying into Kuro's fur, and he just kept comforting her. I would say the sight looked really sweet if Shiro wasn't crying so much.

I felt Charm tap the back of my neck a few times. "M-Miss Naru..? W-Who was that..?" He asked with a very shaky voice. I didn't blame him, especially considering how terrified I was, and I had a bit of experience. _The kids must have been petrified…_

"They were a part of the Void, but they're gone now Charm, so try to calm down a little. I know it's hard, but you're safe now, I promise." I said as softly as I could, through my own anxious thoughts.

I felt Charm hug my neck a little. "O-Okay." Was all he said, still sounding shaken. I watched as Kuro continued to quietly whisper to Shiro in a comforting manor, which seemed to be slowly making her calm. I was glad that Kuro was able to comfort Shiro like that, even though he was also terrified not too long ago. I briefly wondered what was going through his head that whole time, but came to the conclusion that it couldn't have been too much different from what was in my head. Then again, Kuro tends to be more emotional than me, so hopefully he was alr-

' _Kuro and Naru, we need you for something.'_ A voice rang through my head, not startling me like it used to. I had grown pretty accustomed to the random communication through our devices. I looked over at Kuro who was still trying to fully calm Shiro down, so I thought I'd handle the communication for now.

' _We're here, what do you need us for?'_ I 'thought' back. It's become a lot easier to pass my thoughts through this device then when I first started using it. I recognized the voice as Core, who was pretty much the only one to reach out to us this way, besides the mental talking between Kuro and I occasionally.

' _I hate to do this to you, but I'm going to have to momentarily split you guys up. I need one of you to take Shiro back here, and I need the other to join Vero at another area not too far from your current location. About six miles west from that town.'_ I took a second and pondered about what Core had just,,, thought.

' _What's the need in splitting us up..? Why don't we all just go there together..?'_ I asked mentally. I never liked splitting up with Kuro, but nothing bad has particularly happened in the past when we separated… so I'm sure it'd all be okay. It just made me uncomfortable to be far… away from him… I blushed at my own thoughts.

' _We have suspicions that the Void could be in that area, so we want Shiro to be back here as soon as possible. That being said, we also need one of you to join Vero as soon as possible in order to ensure that nobody is in any danger.'_ I further processed Core's words and nodded to myself. Everything made sense after all, but we were supposed to get Charm a new home first… Then again, _he's terrified at the moment, so would he really mind just tagging along with one of us to go back to the Nest for a bit..?_

' _Understood. We'll follow through with what you want.'_ I responded, and Kuro gave me a subtle nod while going to nuzzle Shiro.

' _Thank both of you. I wish you good luck!'_ With that, Core was finished communicating with us, and Kuro turned to look at me for a second.

"Are you feeling better Shiro..?" He asked, petting her a little more. She gave a small nod in response and backed up a little, so Kuro can make eye contact with her. Her eyes were swollen, but she looked a bit more calm. "Good job Shiro, you did great there." Kuro smiled softly at her and continued petting. Shiro gave a bit of a weak smile back and nodded again, though she didn't look up to talking. Kuro kept one of his paws slowly stroking her head, and then turned to face me. "Naru, what do you want to do..?"

I thought about it for a second. I mean, one of us was going to have to take Shiro, and possibly Charm back to the Nest, and the other may or may not have to fight. Either way, we either needed to protect small pokemon, or more than likely enter a battle with who could be a Void member. All of these thoughts lapped over my mind multiple times, and I ultimately came up with an answer. "No idea!" I said enthusiastically.

Kuro stared at me for a second and then smiled. "Always the energetic one Naru." I giggled at his comment, noticing that the two of us had the same goal right now. To brighten the mood after what just happened. "I think I should go meet up with Vero. My mobility and stamina will be useful for that." I nodded after Kuro finished. _And he thinks of a logical solution immediately…_ I awkwardly chuckled at my own mind.

"Sounds good!" I turned my head around to look at the charmander on my back. "Umm… Charm? Do you mind if you come back to our place with me for a bit? We're kind of running low on time…" I chuckled again, honestly hoping that he wouldn't be annoyed at our lack of service.

Charm nodded. "Y-Yes, I'm okay with it, I understand." Charm said. I gave a small sigh of relief, happy that he was willing to come along.

I turned to look at Kuro again after he had explained the situation to Shiro, to which she hopped off of Kuro and went to walk next to me. Charm also got off of my back to walk with Shiro. Kuro gave me a nod of affirmation.

"Alright, good luck Naru. Get back safe." I nodded back towards him.

"Yup! You got it! Be careful out there doing… whatever you're planning on doing. Kuro smiled and nodded, before turning away and heading the direction that Core pointed us in. I watches as Kuro jogged, going to meet up with one of our friends, and possibly have to battle. That was it, it was no different from a normal task for the Nest. I motioned for Charm and Shiro to follow me, and started to walk off in the direction of the Nest. _It's a normal mission… that's all…_

…

…

 _Why… do I have such a bad feeling about this..?_

* * *

Hello Readers!

One more chapter done a few days late! Yay! Alright, I'll stop bringing that up. :p I just hate when I'm off-schedule like this, yet, there really isn't much I can do about it right now. I just have quite a few distractions right now, and they require all of the attention that I can spare. I'm still trying my best to find time to work on this story, but it's just been… a bit hard. :p I'm still kicking though!

Now, I need to give a special thank you to CharTheLittleCharmander, and my beta, 8-BitUmbreon, for keeping me sane these past few days. :p Since I've mentioned it a few times, I think it's time to go into detail a little. I have a non-biological sister who lately has been having quite a few problems when it comes to her mental state, the extent of which I don't really want to go into, but let's just say that it got bad. Really bad at points. This has been ongoing for… a while now, probably for the last… six or so chapters. It hit its peak a few days ago, and I nearly lost my sanity… it was pretty bad all things considered. Luckily though, I have the two aforementioned people to thank for keeping me from doing some stupid things. (Don't worry, it's not as bad as that sounds :p) But that has been on my mind for… a while, so that's a more detailed explanation for my lack of consistency and possible lack of quality. It's slowly but surely getting better though, so there's a silver lining here!

Finally, I want to give my normal thanks to everyone who has left a review, PM, etc. especially around now, all of that means more than I can possibly describe, so thank you all! Thanks again to my beta reader (8-BitUmbreon) For cleaning up my chapters to make them not as crappy!

See You Next Chapter!


	33. Discrimination

**Kuro**

I moved in a calm jog-like motions, heading in the direction I was directed to by Core. Hopefully I was going the right way, as my sense of direction could be… better. I wasn't that bad at navigation though, so I told myself that the journey wouldn't be too difficult. On the way there though, my thoughts were sort of… all over the place. Namely, I was contacted a second time by Core, and he told me that Vero was having trouble over there. My mind immediately jumped to the worst possibility, but soon after, Core was quick to assure that this had nothing to do with any Void members, it was actually the locals there. I really wasn't expecting to hear that, but in my eyes, that was much better than Void intervention. Hopefully.

As the conversation continued, I was enlightened on Vero's situation there, and while it wasn't exactly life-threatening, the locals there were not very accepting of us. By "us" I actually mean dark types. As soon as I heard that, I immediately wished that Naru and I switched places, as sending another dark type to a place that hates dark types probably wasn't a good idea. Core told me that it gives Vero and I a chance to further explain ourselves, showing the locals there that we were not a threat of any kind. I wasn't too on board with it, but it was too late now, I gave my affirmation to Core after all. _Kind of regret that._

I continued moving at a brisque place through the landscape I was in, which looked as if it was changing ever so slightly. The trees became more and more plentiful and defined. Each one towered high above what I was used to by the Nest, which did make a bit of sense, as I was travelling passed the usual ten miles we would go without someone to transport us. The grass was a decent bit taller, and the trees began to host some rather long looking vines, each one slightly hanging low at the top of the trunks of each tree. The branches of each one began to thicken as I moved, and I started to get some odd feelings in my head, as if I've been around this area before, which was surely impossible, but how could I feel different? The area around me was slowly turning into a forest, and I spent an unhealthy amount of time in one of those prior, so it makes sense that I would feel familiar with these environmental changes.

After pushing on for a little longer, The trees began to group together more, and I had entered a forest, similar but different from the one I spent roughly eight years wandering. _I am going the right way… right?_ The powerful smell of natural plants began to flow through my nostrils. I was fond of this, even if I wasn't in that forest on good terms, it still gave me the adoration to nature that I have today. It was just so… relaxing in almost every way, save the poison and aggressive ferals. I really felt in my element here, nothing but trees and plants to run through, nothing but life to be surrounded by.

I took a deep breath, salvaging what I assumed to be the short time I would be here. I continued walking in the same direction, observing everything around me, loving the sight before my eyes. As enigmatic as everything was, not looking where I was going probably wasn't the best idea, as I tripped on a rough, rocky part of the terrain, and fell flat on my face.

I gave a small sigh, a little disappointed in myself for doing something that idiotic. I pushed myself off the ground with my four legs, but once I looked up again, I noticed something unique. Not too far ahead of me was what looked like a rocky hill, still surrounded by trees. The sturdy mass of solid rock was light brown in color, and seemed to stretch upwards above all of the trees. Around the massive pile of earth, there seemed to be a very small path rotating around it, leading upwards. The path was nearly invisible though, I nearly missed it even while gazing up and down what I assumed to be a mountain of sorts.

Despite being endlessly curious, I continued walking passed the newly found cliff, still focusing on my destination. Or where I thought my destination was at least, still not totally sure that I was going in the right direction. _Maybe I really should have let Naru go instead of me…_ I shook the thought out of my head, as I didn't want her to be in any possible danger, even if I had to walk into a place that apparently had a strong distaste for dark types. _Hopefully they don't try and attack us… That would not be very good._

After walking in the same direction for another decent bit of time, still taking in the scenery, which was slowly turning more and more rocky as I kept going, I spotted an abnormality in the rough-grounded forest. I saw the back side of another large rock, not near the size of the mountain I jogged by earlier, but still rather large. Passed this rock, I saw another of the same size, and adjacent to that, I saw yet another. They looked almost as if they were in a formation of some kind, which I tilted my head to, feeling my curiosity rise up again.

I trekked through the rocky ground some more, reaching the rock that I spotted from afar. I glanced around it, getting a better look at the area. It seemed to be a small clearing in this forest, with large rocks placed an even distance from each other, forming a rectangular shape overall. In the middle of this formation of sorts, a group of pokemon were located, all eating… something that I couldn't decipher from a distance. I honestly didn't like the way it looked though… as I wasn't the biggest fan of eating much other than berries and various plants. That being said, watching other pokemon eat meat made me just a little uncomfortable. The idea of eating another pokemon, even if it was considered normal just… bothered me.

A kabuto at the end of the group that was eating backed up from their food a little, and went off into the forest without a word to the others. _Odd…_ I didn't know what to make of this group… so I observed for a little longer. One by one, the rest of the pokemon finished eating and walked off into the forest, leaving behind a pile of blodied bones and small parts of pokemon flesh. Luckily, this wasn't anything compared to some other things I've seen in the past, so I wasn't too grossed out. _Nothing compared to… that._ I shook my head and slowly walked into the center of whatever this area was.

Each of the rocks looked virtually the same, I closely investigated each one to check for differences, and found none whatsoever. The spacing of the rocks seemed to be exactly the same as well, forming the closest thing possible to a perfect rectangle. _I wonder what this is…_ I glanced around the surrounding area a bit more, which consisted of nothing but more of the same thick forest. I did take note of where I came from so I wouldn't get lost, but this landmark unnerved me, but I wasn't sure why. After making sure that I had my bearings, I continued in the original direction I was heading in, calming myself down a little. _That made me way too uneasy…_

It only took another minute of walking before I found another unorthodox group of large rocks, but these looked a bit bigger, and besides the rocks, I heard what sounded like very quiet talking. Intrigued, I began to walk closer, and peeked around one of the rocks, watching as a bunch of pokemon casually walked around the forest. There wasn't a clearing like before, but this place had significantly less trees than the rest of the forest, as if they had been cut down to make room. Other than the lack of trees, there laid a lot of pokemon, resting on the likes of small cloths with no real shelter other than the trees that hadn't been cut down yet. Some of the pokemon were conversing, others just seemingly slept. _What is this place..? I'm not even too far away from Charm's town, so why is it so much different here..?_

Beyond the single rock and the rather odd-looking group of pokemon, I saw what looked like another mountain, but this one seemed to be even larger than the previous one, and had a huge, cave-like entrance to it. Now I was even more interested, so I decided to observe the area more than I had previously, making sure it wasn't dangerous before I decided to investigate. It looked like a huge amount of the forest in front of me had many pokemon just laying down and relaxing, or quietly conversing with one another. Seeing the large amount of pokemon here inspired an idea in my head, thought if I was right, this was certainly unexpected. In order to confirm my thoughts, I observed every possible pokemon that I could see from my position, taking note of their species. _No dark types at all… Is this the place Vero is located right now..? Or did I overshoot…_

I sighed to myself, hoping that I wasn't in the wrong area. The fact that I didn't see a single dark type that wasn't me hiding in the background made me more confident that I was in the right place, but I still couldn't be sure. For all I know, I was just missing a random dark type in the shadows of one of these trees. _I just hope I'm right…_

I was about to take the biggest risk of my life and walk further into the area, but I heard a lot of uneven rustling behind me, which got my attention. There was a group of about six pokemon walking to the larger group, and I was directly in their path. I very quickly dimmed the color of my rings, making myself look like a black mass of fur. I rolled myself to the nearest bit of shade from the many trees that towered overhead. There were less of them in this area, but they were still plentiful, and provided plenty of cover for me to seep into. It was still easy to get caught if anyone ended up walking around the area I was hiding. Sadly, as near invisible as I looked while blending in like this, I still had a body, so anyone in the area who may walk by can make contact, and that usually isn't good. I wasn't quite in the direct path of the group, so I figured that I would be okay. Getting caught in a place that most likely despised dark types wasn't exactly… good. _I hope that, if Vero is here, she's doing okay…_

The group that was heading to this new area was now quite a bit closer to me, but paid me no mind, which most likely meant that I wasn't visible to them, which was good. I did notice as they got closer though, they walked in a very odd formation, almost in a circular one. I tilted my head at it, but didn't give it too much thought. For all I knew, this could be completely normal, just a certain way that this group enjoyed walking in. I tried my best not to make a sound, waiting for the group to peacefully pass by. As they became on even ground with me, one of them stopped moving suddenly, a linoone, and just gazed ahead of themselves. I kept my eyes on them, feeling the slightest bit worried. _I don't even know if this is the right place and my anxiety is through the roof…_

The linoone that had stopped was left behind by the rest of the group, as they looked towards the ground and closed their eyes, mumbling something that I couldn't decipher. They did this for about three or four minutes, and then they walked off to the same area the rest of the group was in. All of them entered the opening in the mountain right behind the rest of the area, and I began to get even more curious as to what was in there. From the outside, I couldn't tell, the only constant I noticed is that pokemon came in and left at a rather slow rate, as if not many were able to be in there at once. Either that, or only certain pokemon wanted to be in there, or only certain ones were allowed in there, many possibilities presented themselves as soon as I started to think about it. I couldn't be certain of any of them though, as I still had no idea what this place even was, or if I was in the right area or not. _Let's hope…_

I stayed hidden in the shade of the trees for a bit longer, still trying to grasp what exactly the area before me was used for. For all I knew, it was just an odd place of residence, but it could potentially be more too. I had no way of really knowing that, but there were still two things that I knew. I still hadn't seen any dark types, and I still had no sight of Vero at all. These sort of… contradict each other. After all, no dark types implies that I'm in the right place, but not seeing Vero at all does the complete opposite for me, implies that I'm not in the right place. I was going to have to confirm this myself eventually, but-

I felt a huge shock seemingly come from behind me, and now my body was numb, and I couldn't move a muscle. I couldn't even turn my neck to see where the paralysis came from. I heard leaves and branches crack and snap louder and louder with each passing second. I tried to open my mouth to say something, but that didn't work either. I couldn't even open my mouth, make my tail or my ears twitch, lift a digit on my paw, nothing. I was frozen, unable to move or act.

And after the paralysis came a crushing force on my head, and then darkness.

* * *

 **Vero**

 _I wonder how long I'll be here…_

I had been laying on my back, relaxing my mind with my eyes closed for a long time now, in what felt like, and essentially was a prison cell. Well, a prison cell made out of some kind of really hard rock, nothing like normal. If it was normal rock, I would be able to easily break it, but on my way here, it was pretty easy to see that this type of rock was not easily crumbled. I suppose that it did look a little different than normal, being lighter than most other rocky structures I've seen, but It's on a whole other level when it comes to durability. I could scratch and chip away at it, but never break it. _Aaaaaannnd now I'm stuck in a room surrounded by it… nice…._

I sighed to myself and tried to redirect my thoughts away from what seemed like invincible rock. I arrived at this place a while ago, happy that I made it to my destination in order to investigate the possible Void intervention that can take place here, but I had no idea that the pokemon living here were a bunch of lunatics who are racist against two types, being dark and fairy. I barely had any idea why, but after I was snuck up on me and knocked out, I was called a 'demon' just as I woke up in this rocky… wherever I was. Just an empty room, surrounded by rocky floors, walls, and a single door-like entrance, which, surprise, was also made of the same rock. It's like these pokemon discovered a new resource and decided to coat every little thing they made with the stuff. Granted, it was effective, but lacked creativity in any way and why was I ever thinking about how the place looked in the first place..?

I sighed to myself once more. _I think of weird things when I'm alone like this…_ I tried to humble my thoughts so I wouldn't knock this place anymore for its interior design. _That's not what I should be thinking about… I need to find a way to get out of here…_ I couldn't break my way out, so I supposed that I would just need to wait and see if I get an opportunity to leave somewhat soon. If not, then… well, I'm not sure. _I'll find a way, it'll just take some doing._

I looked at the entrance to the room again, which was somehow locked by some force, despite being, you know, a rock. I imagined that there was just a random pokemon behind the scenes using their element to keep the thing in place, but if not, then I was up against some really talented magicians. _It's not like I can just run out if they open it again… there's no way they don't have this guarded in some way shape or form. So how am I going to do this..?_

Just as I was scheming a litte, the rocky door shifted and roughly moved around, slowly opening outwards. I glared daggers at the door, and saw a golem, but it wasn't a tradition golem, it was one that seemed to have an electrical pulse within it… The thing was able to catch me off guard by paralyzing me from a distance and then knocking me out. I had no idea that this place had such a stupid vendetta against dark types… and by the looks of it, all of the pokemon here looked like they were in some kind of religious cult… that's the impression I got. _And I thought that this place couldn't get any more creepy…_

The golem took one step forward, closer into the room I was stuck in, and I had a very strong temptation to jet out of the rocky door, but I knew that it was way too risky. Plus, I would just be running into a bunch of other pokemon who also had a hate against my born typing, and I don't want to have a need to defend myself when I was here to help in the first place. _If only they knew that…_

I saw one of the golem's arms rear back, and I thought they were about to attack me, so I crouched, but instead of attacking me, they threw what looked like a messed up ball of black fur into the room with me. The fur was awkwardly spread out in a few places, and the rest of it was perfectly smooth. On the side of whatever this was, there was something white, looking almost like… a… talon… "Kuro!?" I instinctively shouted out.

The golem ignored my shout and re-sealed the room, leaving me alone with a passed out Kuro. I immediately walked to him and turned him over so he was laying on his back. None of his rings were visible, and his fur was still messed up in a few places, despite it always being smooth at all other times. His eyes were closed, but after checking his pulse, I was happy to realize that the umbreon wasn't dead. I took a deep breath. _That caught me off-guard…_

I began to nudge him a few times, trying to get him to regain consciousness. _So they got you too…_ I sighed again. When I arrived here, I walked in like I would any other civilization, but as soon as I did, I was forcefully grabbed and locked into place by a bunch of the locals. The smaller pokemon looked terrified, and I heard a lot of random words get spouted, and it was pretty difficult to coherently put them together. But, a few words stuck out to me. _Hate… Scared… Die… and my favorite, Demon._

On my way here, I also ran into a few groups that walked in a bunch of different formations, and muttered some incomprehensible phrases that I didn't give too much thought. It was creepy though… really creepy. I tried to pay it no mind, but I had no idea that they were connected with to where my destination is… or that my destination would lock me up like this, but if Kuro was here too, then we could definitely get out. _The problem lies with leaving here without fighting anyone…_ I continued nudging Kuro, until I saw his body begin to sway a little bit. I then tapped a claw against his forehead a few times.

Without opening his eyes, Kuro jumped up and launched himself to the other side of the room, his rings flaring into a bright light. His eyes darted around the room, and he spun in a circle, observing his surroundings. Eventually his eyes landed on me, and if I could describe the confusion on his face, I would be a literary genius. I even had to suppress a smirk, he looked incredibly clueless, and seeing as he wasn't exactly a dumb pokemon, this was a rare sight indeed. He shook his head and his rings stopped brightly glowing, going back to just an attachment to his fur.

"Calm down a little there." I told him. "I don't really know where we are either, but no use in panicking. They haven't killed me or anything, so I doubt we're in much danger. At least, not yet." I backed up and leaned against the rocky wall behind me, which wasn't very comfortable, but I was sick of laying on something similar.

Kuro closed his eyes for a second, probably calming himself down. "Glad to see you're alright, and that I'm in the right place." He then sighed. "Looks like I got caught off-guard though…"

"Don't worry about it too much. The same happened to me, and it wasn't very preventable." I went on and explained to Kuro how I entered this place, and then got held down.

Kuro nodded after I finished, and then sighed again. "You got farther than I did… I didn't even make it into the place. I thought I was hidden and got knocked out from behind." He went on and explained to me exactly what happened, and I was intrigued, not from him getting knocked out, but form what he found on the way here.

"That's… creepy." I replied, becoming more and more uncomfortable with this place as time went on. I mean, weird groups muttering nonsense was one thing, a small group eating what looked like corpses was… a lot more weird. I mean, meat from ferals wasn't exactly frowned upon to eat, I enjoyed it quite a bit, but the whole situation around that is just… odd.

"You're telling me… To think that we're here to look out for the Void and we get locked up… wherever this is." Kuro sat down in the center of the room and took a breath. "Never thought a task like this would be blocked by the pokemon we're trying to help out…" He sighed. He sounded… odd though. Like he was annoyed, which was understandable, but also like he was worried about something.

I smirked to myself. "You sound anxious." I simply said. "What's bringing that on?"

"Just… a little worried is all. Not only is… whatever this is happening, but Naru had to take Shiro back to the Nest by herself because of the position we were in, and right before she left, we ran into an unfriendly face." Kuro explained to me that the same pokemon that initially tried to take Shiro ran into them again, which shook me a little bit, but seeing as he apparently had other plans in mind, I didn't think that I needed to worry about it too much. The Void didn't seem to care about hiding their agenda much, as Aven pretty much blabbed exactly what was meant to happen to Kuro and Naru while they were away from the Nest, so they weren't so secretive. Because of this, I don't think that a member of theirs would lie about what they were doing for whatever reason, so I wasn't too worried. _But Kuro has more of a reason to be worried than I do, doesn't he?_ I chuckled to myself.

Kuro tilted his head while observing my mannerism. "I get your concern, but I know that if you think about this logically, you know there isn't much to worry about." I told him. Looking at Kuro again, I also noticed that his bag was absent, probably taken by the golem that presumably threw us in here.

"You're not wrong… I just can't help myself. Not sure what it is, but I can't stop thinking of all the possible ways that the short trip they have back can go wrong…" Kuro closed his eyes and shook his head. I tried very hard not to burst into laughter at this umbreon's density.

I calmed myself down a little. "Kuro, mind if I ask you something?"

"What is it?" He replied, looking at me. _This might be fun._

"What do you think of Naru?" _I'm curious~_

Kuro tilted his head after I asked. "What do you mean..?" I once more, had to resist the urge to burst into laughter. Granted, thinking about his life before the Nest, it wasn't really surprising that he didn't pick up the signs of what I was asking. I may have not known all of the details, but I knew that he had little to no interaction with anyone for an extended period of time, which meant that he probably didn't have much experience with the feelings he had for Naru. It was a pretty safe assumption that he liked her a lot, so I had no issue pushing this on him despite him seeming ignorant to the concept overall. _This is gonna be fun~_

I smirked at Kuro. "How much do you like her? I'm curious."

"How much..?" Kuro had a clueless stare. _How can I approach this..?_

"Well… tell me your impressions of her. Like… what is she like in your mind?"

Kuro looked up to the rocky ceiling above and looked as if he was thinking for a second. "Well… there's a lot to say. Initially, I kind of saw her as a klutzy glaceon, seeing as she rammed heads with me and then nearly got herself killed." Kuro closed his eyes for a second. "I was drawn to her for some reason though. Maybe it was because she was the first one outside of my family who I didn't see as… terrifying." He shuddered a little, so I didn't really want to push it.

"How about how you feel about her now?"

"Now? A lot has happened… Rather than a klutz, I see her as… a pillar." I tilted my head.

"What do you mean?" I very curiously asked.

"A supporter for me. Like… she kept me up a lot in the past when I needed it. Honestly, without her, I probably would have gone insane a while ago." _A supporter, eh?_

"So she's been talking you out of all the negative thoughts you have?"

"Not even that. She has in the past, and while that's a big part of it, just being around her is enough to make me forget about whatever I have on my mind. Like, even though I am well aware of the possibility of Aven killing us all overnight, talking to her always gets my mind away from all that. Not even talking… just being in the same room as her has that effect."

I let out a quiet sigh, but smiled to myself. _And that confirms my thoughts._ I kind of wished Kuro was aware of his own affection, because I've observed both of them a ton, and I wouldn't be surprised if Naru gave me a total mirror of what Kuro just said if I asked her the same question. If he was aware, then maybe they could become a lot closer. _Perhaps I can make him aware..?_

"What's up with these questions..?" Kuro asked with somewhere between a suspicious and curious tone.

I suppressed another chuckle. "Oh nothing, just a bit curious is all." I stretched my limbs a little. "By the way, anything new you have to teach me while we're here? We may be stuck for a little bit." Kuro had been teaching me quite a few of the various techniques that he learned from Kai for a decent while. Granted, we have very different ways of using most of them, but we essentially share a moveset in that regard.

"Kind of. It's something you already know how to do, so I don't really need to teach you. Just something that I need to work on." Kuro closed his eyes and took a breath. "May as well do that now… seeing as we're kind of stuck here for the time being." It didn't take too much of me thinking to know what he was working on. There was really only one thing I knew how to do that he didn't, and that was properly control the energy inside of me. It wasn't really his specialty, as apparently he had no experience with it whatsoever when he arrived at the Nest. I don't blame him too much, as I may have used it a lot more than him, but I had no idea what I was actually doing.

If there was one thing that I knew for a fact that Kuro didn't have the hang of, it was launching attacks from his body, without using his mouth. A pokemon's mouth was definitely the easiest exit for using an attack, and though I've seen Kuro shoot a dark pulse from his paw in the applicants' tournament, that's the one and only time he's done it to my knowledge. Well, he also has his tendrils and that one attack that looks like an arrow rain or something, but it's pretty clear he doesn't have the most control over either one of those attacks. Nowhere near as much as I do at least, but that made sense, considering our different strengths and weaknesses. _If only I can learn how to run for as long as he can…_

I tried to think about how we would get out of here if need be, but since Kuro and I were both here, I can see us being able to break our way out of this rock if we both gave it our all. The problem after that would be dealing with the racist civilillians here. We could always run away for a bit and try to sneak back, but it was really risky, especially considering that we both got caught fairly easily the first time. We couldn't just leave either, as there was a strong possibility this place could be attacked, and we needed to be here for that purpose. _Geez… Why did the two Ravens who happen to be dark types get stuck here..?_ I sighed quietly. _Well… I guess there's a chance that we won't even-_

The ground beneath us suddenly shook, and Kuro's eyes shot open immediately, and he rose to his paws. The two of us both looked around the rocky interior of the room we were in, taken off-guard from what seemed like a minor earthquake. _So much for getting out peacefully…_

"Do you think they're attacking?" Kuro asked, still moving his eyes all around the room.

"Not sure, but we need to find out." I responded, getting a nod from Kuro. "Do you want to try and break out of here?"

"Yeah, I think we can break ourselves out if we try hard enough. Be prepared for whatever might be out there." I nodded in response.

The two of us both began to take deep breaths, ready to launch whatever strong attacks we could muster to break the rocky area around us, mainly the door-like rock, so we can have an easy out, hopefully without this place collapsing on us. That would be… less than good. After some times of readying up, I put both of my arms in front of me, and prepared to launch an attack at the seemingly psychic-controlled rock. Kuro closed his eyes and then did the same, the ring on his forehead beginning to simply glow.

"Okay, on three?" He asked me, ready to blast down the 'door.'

"Yep. Let's do it." I was ready to face whatever was out there, well, assuming it was something in the first place. "One… Two…" Before I can utter the last number we needed to launch our attack, the rock we were aiming at shattered into many small rocky bits, flying at the two of us. I braced myself and felt as the bits made contact with my arms, which I had crossed, blocking my head. The impacts stung a little, but it wasn't anything worse than whatever I took in any battle. I was blocking my vision with my arms, so I slowly moved them away to see what may have smashed this rock before we could.

Before me, was an unusually colored mawile.

* * *

Hello readers!

So… slow update once more, for the same reasons as last time. I want to apologize once more, but… I'll be sure to try my best going forward! It's still been kinda hard for a while now, but I hope everything will get better soon! Hopefully… Pray for me! :p Also, I know this entire chapter is just padding out a setting, but I swear that it'll get much better soon! I hope :p

I want to give my thanks for the normal reviews and PMs and whatnot, they all mean a ton to me, especially with how everything is now, so thank you all for every bit of it! And of course, thank you to my beta reader for cleaning these chapters up as much as possible, despite my many, many typos! (8-Bit-Umbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	34. Mixed Futures

****?****

Walking through a dense and dreary forest wasn't really making me happy, namely because I had to resist my temptations here. You can't put someone like me in a forest, and tell me not to burn the thing down. Luna knew exactly who she was asking, and I hated how she liked to torture even the pokemon who diligently work for her. She knows damn well I'm a pyromaniac, and yet, she sends me here… a forest of all places, and tells me that I can't burn a single tree. That's just… torture.

Regardless, it's not like I could really refuse, her being my boss and all. I just had to suck up my need to burn down this entire place and keep walking through it, and continue on with what I was assigned to do. I wasn't alone here though, by my side, I had a mindless shell of a mawile. I had been entrusted to command anything to this mawile in order to assist me in completing what it was I was going to do, though I didn't really need it. If anything, I just wanted to send this mawile in so I don't have to worry about spreading fire. _She doesn't even need this place… the only reason she's restricting me is to make my life harder…_ I sighed.

A bit of a gentle breeze blew by me, rustling all of the fallen leaves coming from the many trees and sending them into a spiral. I was honestly surprised most of these trees still had leaves, the weather being cooler and all, but hey, I didn't care much for them either way. I didn't really like the feeling or sound of leaves being crunched under my feet, but I could deal with it. Not like I had too short a temper. Not too short. I'm not patient though.

The forest increased in density as I went further, that was, until I found a rather large mountain-like structure in the middle of it. The obstruction was very tall, but seemed to be easily climbable, with a nice path carved in the side of it for that very purpose. I took a second and felt the gargantuan rock, which looked a little different from the many other stones and the like scattered around this forest. I found it odd that there were any rocks here at all, but it's not like I made the place, and it's not like I cared much about it anyway. _Then again… Can I use this mountain to make everything easier..?_

I decided to test my luck and began to make my way up the mountain that was presented before me. The path was rough, as was the rock itself, which made the trek not so pleasant at points, especially since I didn't enjoy rocks too much, but it wasn't enough to stop me from possibly eliminating all effort I needed to put into my task. I wasn't lazy per se, but I certainly liked to do whatever I could to lessen my workload, especially since it came from someone like Luna. She liked to, not overwork us, but make sure whatever she had us do was as annoying as physically possible. Such as, stick a pyromaniac in a freakin' forest and ask her to not burn the thing down. _Don't know how much longer I can resist this…_

I continued up the mountain, despite my feet beginning to yell at me for walking on such rocky terrain. As I was scaling, the path didn't seem to get any wider, but began thinning out as I went higher and higher. It was nothing that would prevent me from continuing, but I did notice that the whole thing didn't look natural. This was definitely morphed by someone else to make it easier for someone to climb it. Not that I was complaining, just something I took note of while climbing whatever this mountainous area was. I looked back at the discolored mawile following close to me, and watched as he crushed every rock that he stepped on, in comparison to my feet aching in pain with every single one. _Lucky steel type…_

After a decent while of painful walking, we reached a point where we were above even the tallest trees, which created a nice view I must say, especially when looking at the sky behind the amassed trees in the vivid forest, it was a beauty for sure. But… it also made me want to toss a giant ball of fire downwards, do I quickly turned away and continued up as far as what seemed to be the sky. _I better be able to do what I need to from here… Otherwise I'm going to be reeaalll grumpy on the way down…_

Much more time passed, and I finally arrived at the summit of this large rocky mountain in the middle of a forest. I was immediately greeted by the bright sun, looking much larger now that I was up in the clouds as opposed to on the ground. I wanted to look back down to the forest, but afraid to give into my temptations, I held off. The summit itself was rather rough all around, no part of the ground up here was smooth, the whole thing just consisted of small pointed rocks, ones that really did hurt my feet with every step. Through my grunts of walking around, I realized that the summit had quite a large bit of excess space, even if none of it had any bit of smoothness to it. It's not like I needed to use this space though, so I didn't have to worry about the rough texture that was the rocky ground. Along the small, pointed pats of the summit, there were much larger ones, also pointed, but too big to step on, thank Arceus.

I walked over to one of the large rocks, and sat down beside it, leaning my back into the hard surface. Was it comfortable? No. But it was better than walking around on something that made my feet want to bleed. After taking a moment to recover from what felt like a painful trek up this mountain, I looked towards the edge, in the direction of my destination. I closed my eyes and took a breath, creating a small purple and blue orb on one of my hands, and sending it off the side of the mountain. I patiently waited for a few moments, and eventually, the orb made it to the air above where I was to go for my task. I focused myself, staring at the back of my eyelids until my sight changed from that of darkness, to that of a view above the forest once more. Only this time, I could clearly see a group of pokemon walking around in between trees that were a small bit separated when compared to the rest of the forest.

The group had a large number of pokemon, with no real structures to take note of, other than a large cave-like thing in the back end of it, and small sleeping bags of sorts made from cloth, but that's not really a structure, just the only thing that wasn't natural there. A few of the pokemon were conversing, and others were just resting calmly. It was much more of a peaceful sight than I expected, after hearing that we had a target here at the moment. At least, there was supposed to be a target here. Another thing about Luna, she liked to gamble. Everything was a game to her, and that includes missions that are actually very important in the grand scheme of things. There was supposed to be an umbreon here, but he wasn't just supposed to be here, he was supposed to be locked up here somewhere. (Explain the plan)

I sighed to myself. Instead of giving us a direct location he would be in, she came up with a stupidly complicated plan to spread information about the Void attacking a place that happened to greatly dislike dark types, and banking on the fact that this umbreon would be close to the area at the time, thanks to the work of the Void members we have stationed at the Nest. after he happened to be close to this place, she sent me here to "attack" it. By attack, I mean just come close to the area so I'm registered as a threat, and then make it so the umbreon was forced to come to this place, since it was close to his current location. Now, this would all be fine and dandy for me, if it weren't for the fact that the umbreon was traveling with a partner, who very well could be sent here with, or instead of said umbreon. If they were together, then there's a high chance they would prevent the umbreon from being captured, and if the partner was sent instead, then this whole thing was pointless in the first place!

I started to lose focus of my orb and quickly stopped thinking about Luna's ridiculous ways of accomplishing goals. I mean… why take risks like this when this whole thing can just be over by fabricating a mission for them to complete, and then taking him off-guard there? _Right… It's a game to her… there's no such thing as taking the easy way out…_ I wanted more than ever to burn down the forest surrounding this mountain again, but I suppose that I needed to hold myself back. Either that, or get punished by Luna… Rather suppress my urges.

I re-focused myself onto observing this small civilization of sorts, but seeing as there was no umbreon there, I began to feel annoyed at the possibility that I came all the way out here for nothing. _I swear… I really don't want to blow a blood vessel…_ I decided to camouflage my floating orb with its surroundings, a handy trick when I wanted to check something out from afar. I took a breath, moving the orb closer to the ground, and entering the cave-like structure that was present there. As my vision extended to the cave, it was a bit different than I was expecting. On the light gray, rocky walls, there were a few flags hanging, colored green and on either side of a big rock attached to the wall that almost looked out of place. This repeated a few times around the walls of this cave, and each one looked almost like an entrance.

I was about to head down there myself to investigate further, but two other pokemon entered the cave right as I was observing. Those two pokemon were a golem, and an umbreon that they happened to be holding, seemingly unconscious. I nearly lost focus on my orb and clenched my hand hard. _You're joking...She was right…_ I couldn't tell if Luna was a genius or the luckiest pokemon on the planet to be honest. I watched as the golem walked to one of the awkwardly positioned rocks, knocking on it a few times. Seconds passed, and then the rock bagan to move itself to the side without any physical contact, probably from a psychic that was out of sight. I didn't catch sight of the inside, but I saw the golem toss the umbreon in there without much concern for his safety.

Now that I knew the position of said umbreon, I decided to pull myself out of the interior of the cave for a second, and look at the mawile that had come with me here. _Wonder if I can take you for a test run…_

I cleared my throat, excited to see if this would actually work. "Go after the target." I said loudly and clearly. The mawile wordlessly turned around, facing where our destination was to be. I held a hand up, aimed at the back of the mawile, and sent a calm, psychic wave, bestowing him the knowledge of where the target was. Without saying a word, the mawile leapt off of the mountain, heading in the direction of our destination, and our target. I heard rocks proceed to get torn off of the mountain, presumably from the mawile sliding down the giant thing. _Really wish they gave me a name for him other than 'metal face' courtesy of Grace._

I closed my eyes again, going back to the sight of my orb. I moved it out of the cave, and back into the sky above the whole place. _Now when he gets there, hopefully the town members don't do any interfering. They hate fairies too after all… if they get in his way, he'll probably kill them. Not that I mind of course._

 _All that matters is that we get that umbreon, and then I get my reward._

* * *

 **Shine**

 _What… Have I gotten myself… Into…?_

I slowly but surely walked my way through Myriad, having these… painfully heavy weights right above all four of my paws. Each step felt like I was trying to lift another pokemon, and they just got heavier and heavier as I walked more. I was happy and all that I had a place like Myriad, a place I knew the layout of, to walk around with these things, but that didn't make it any less painful. _I'm… going to make sure… I get her back…_

Originally, these things were to be lighter, but a certain sylveon I met recently made sure that I wasn't getting a break of any kind, so she replaced the old ones I wanted to use with weights that nearly doubled the original amount. Of course, after she pled with me that this was a better option, I eventually gave in, but that was such a huge mistake… I felt like my paws were about to collapse with every step. _Why… Why did I let you talk me into this… Crescent..?_

Luckily, I was getting close to where I needed to be, so I was getting closer and closer to removing these things from my body. I couldn't handle this for much longer, no matter how good she was at healing my limbs when they're tired like that. I just wanted to reach the orphanage I came from as soon as possible, so I could tell Cyan what I needed to. _As hard as It's gonna be…_

I made a decision recently. Not one that I thought would ever be in my mind anytime soon, but since it presented itself, I couldn't really turn it away. Not without my mental state slowly deteriorating. It wasn't a secret to anyone that I was losing it more and more as time went on. Especially not to Cyan. He knew more than anyone that I was slowly going insane, as much as I tried to hide it. I didn't want him to worry about me, he already had enough on his plate when it came to watching over all of us there, me losing my mind wasn't going to help him any. _Then again… I don't think this will be too much better in the long run…_

I dragged my feet along the grounds of Myriad until I made it back to the orphanage I've called home for a long time now. I stood in front of the small building, nowhere near the size or polish as the ones surrounding it. And yet, I loved it more than any other building here. It's kind of odd really, at first, I admired every other building more than I can describe, loving how beautiful they all looked, but that sentiment left me pretty quickly, being replaced by the home-like atmosphere that I had at the orphanage with Cyan and my siblings. Nothing could replace that, not now, not ever. _Ugh… Thinking about this stuff is just going to make this that much harder…_

I sucked in a quick gulp of air, and moved my head down to take off the daunting weights that I've been wearing for far too long. As soon as they left my paws, I felt immense relief wash over me. My body suddenly felt like it had the mass of a caterpie, which I supposed was the purpose of this in the first place, though I still think Crescent overdid it. I stretched my sore limbs, and slowly walked into the front of my home, a sight I've seen many times since I made the transition here. _And it hasn't changed one bit…_ I felt a tug at the upper parts of my mouth, but it didn't quite escalate to a smile. I still hadn't smiled since the news came out, though I didn't think about that too much. I knew that I was on my way to becoming a husk, but I hoped that I would find someway to fix it before I went too far. _Hopefully I did…_

After standing at the entrance to the orphanage for a decent bit of time, I wandered further, getting to a door that I've walked through many times in the past. I slowly but surely entered, seeing a wide room, a shelf stretched over most of the walls, containing gifts that my siblings made for one another. None of them were in the room though, despite the fact it was still pretty early in the morning. They must have been sleeping in, which wasn't too uncommon for them, even before we got the news. On the ground, in the center of the room, Cyan was cleaning up a few of the various nicknacks on the ground, probably left there on accident by some of the others. His head slowly turned to me, staring at him, feeling nervous. It wasn't hard to tell when I wasn't comfortable, or I was scared about something, and I knew that Cyan could always tell, no matter what.

And yet, he just gave me the same kind smile he always had.

"Welcome back Shine!" He greeted cheerfully. I could tell that he was an awkward pokemon a lot, especially when he tried talking to all of us as a group, but he always had a very friendly, warm tone to his words. "How was your time out?" Luckily, he didn't see my back, which still had a pretty visible slash on it from when I left. He didn't even question the fact that I was gone for the night, as I've done that a few times before and always come back safely.

"I-It was okay, like usual." I told him, my mind going all over the place.

"Ah, I see. It's good to see you back here though! I'm glad that you're okay!" Cyan's positivity made me shudder. He knew… He knew how bad of a spot I've been in for a decent while, and yet, he still kept that vibe about him, which I appreciated, but it was making me feel… less and less confident. I coughed a few times before saying anything, my sickness still not really going away.

"H-Hey, Cyan… I…" Coughed again. "I-I…" Couldn't find the will to keep talking. It was difficult to word something like this, more than I could describe. Not even to word it… just to say it. This wasn't easy… nor did I think I could even go through with it, so I ended up putting my head towards the ground.

I felt a soft sensation on my head, slowly moving up and down it, in between my ears. "Don't force yourself to talk Shine. It's bad for you." He told me soothingly. I bit my lip, not knowing what to do. I had to keep on talking… but I couldn't get the words out. I had to tell him… but my voice stopped working.

I took in a breath, ready to try and talk again, but all that came out was a cough, followed by two more coughs after that. _Come on body…_ "I-I have something… important to tell you." I managed to get out in a low and scratchy voice.

Cyan continued petting my head gently. "What's up Shine?"

I coughed again. "I… made a decision yesterday." My breathing wasn't really stable, and I couldn't tell if that was the exhaustion from the weights, or my nervousness speaking up. "You know I've been… n-not good recently, and I didn't know how to fix it at all. But… I-I think I found something."

Cyan looked a little intrigued by my words. "Really? That's great Shine!" She exclaimed. I just bit my lip. He had no idea what I found, or what it involved me doing in the end. I had no idea what his reaction would be when I explained all of it, so I hesitated more. "What did you find?"

"S-Something to work towards." I said very quietly. I really didn't want to elaborate… but I knew that I needed to. I had to right here, right now, so I took in another breath, coughing a few more times. "C-Cyan, I-I think I... " My teeth squeezed the lower part of my mouth. _How do I even say it..? After he's given us so much… How..?_

Without giving me a chance to really compose myself, Cyan lowered his head so he was eye-level with me. He held a calm, thoughtful expression, and a smile on his face. "Do you want to leave?" He calmly asked.

I was dumbfounded for a moment. He knew exactly what I was getting at, even though I didn't have any idea how to get the thoughts out with my voice. I wanted to ask him what gave it away, but I started to get choked up. My mind had been a pretty blank slate for a long time, so I hadn't been expressing myself too much. Because of that, I felt an unwelcome amount of buildup in my mind begin to leak out. I coughed a few more times, trying to resist tears, with a small bit of success. "I-I don't want to, b-but, I can't do anything h-here." I closed my eyes, further trying my best to stop myself from crying.

Cyan gave me a nod. "I know how you feel. There's not too much for you here, especially with everything that's happened. You feel stuck, don't you? Like you're just in an endless loop, with nowhere to go, and nothing to focus on, right?" I returned Cyan's previous gesture weakly. _He described exactly how I'm feeling…_

"H-How did you know?" My voice was even more weak and scratchy than normal.

Cyan held his gentle smile. "You're not a hard pokemon to read Shine. I've known you for a while now, you and everyone else. I can tell when you're bothered, and based on what you do, I can tell how much you've been hurting. It takes a lot to bring someone as optimistic and cheerful as you down to what you have been as of late you know. Although, it may have matured you a lot, at the same time, it's not hard to tell that you're holding back." _Not for you… or Crescent for that matter…_

I always thought I did a good job making it seem like I wasn't upset. Not that I was happy at all, but that I wasn't upset at least, but since two pokemon saw through me just like that, it was clear that I could have done better. Especially since one of them didn't even know who I was at the time. I know I was… not well, but I still didn't want anyone to know that. It was no use worrying about me if I had no idea what to do to make things better after all. _I might know now though… I hope I do._

I took a shaky breath and coughed again. I should have known that Cyan knew how I felt really, but I wasn't paying too much attention to these kinds of things lately, I was too busy just.. Mourning. That's all I did, nothing else for the longest time. That was probably enough of a give away on its own, but I couldn't realize that. I couldn't even think about anything… I was stuck. Thinking about he was watching over me, and how he knew the whole time… it shattered whatever wall I had still in front of my emotions.

I put my head down and began to lightly sob, the first emotion I really showed to anyone after I got the news. My sobbing slowly increased in volume as time went on, and I completely lost control of myself, almost toppling to the ground. This wasn't even an intense conversation, I didn't even say that I was going to leave yet, and my mind couldn't handle it. I felt Cyan gently wraps his two arms around me, probably feeling a bit awkward because I didn't match up to his size at all. I kept on crying, unable to hold back. I was already fragile before all of this, barely in my teenage years, and yet, there went the entire family I found at that old camp… all gone. I had never been sensitive at all, but that event… it just killed me. I was so happy with my everyday life, so pleased with it, and yet, that happiness was able to be ripped away in an instant. From always looking forward to the next day, straight to dreading every second that went by.

Now though… I was just at an impasse. What could I do..? Was it really the right choice to take a huge risk and leave..? As much as it seemed like the right way to go, nothing was set in stone. I could just be walking into another storm of misfortune for all I knew, but at this point, I was willing to do anything to get better. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life as… this. Not at all, I just had no idea at all how I could fix it, so I was willing to take risks. I was okay with it though, as, even in Myriad, I got myself severely injured just by trying to be a decent pokemon, so how much more unlucky than that could I get?

I felt the fur all around my face moisten with each falling tear, though I was beginning to calm down. Cyan being here to comfort me helped a lot for sure, just having somebody here to support me was more than comforting for my mind, even if I was here to tell him that we probably wouldn't see each other for a long while, all that mattered was the current moment. This was the first time in a long while I was actually… well, feeling something other than emptiness and pain, both physical and mental. I felt comfortable in a way, okay with releasing all of my built up emotions at once. I had to wait until I had someone to vent them to, doing it on my own was dangerous, considering my mental state. I may have been crying my eyes out, but I was the closest to happy I have been since the news, only because I knew I had someone here to care for me. I knew that the whole time, but since I was on the verge of losing it completely, I couldn't focus on it. I needed it to be shoved into my face forcefully, and that's what Cyan was doing. _It hurts… but it's relieving…_

Some more time was spent crying, but I began to calm down again. My eyes were going to be swollen, and my face all wet with tears, but it was worth it. I didn't feel like I was about to become an empty shell of a pokemon at any second. I was still upset, and wasn't magically cured or anything, but I sure felt a lot better, and I was actually calm. I stayed leaning against Cyan for a bit, letting myself breathe, letting myself calm down. My tears eventually stopped falling, and I was now just lightly breathing, feeling relaxed, not nearly as heavy as before. After a few minutes passed, I pulled my head away, and Cyan was smiling at me brightly, as if that hadn't just happened.

"You know that if you need to leave I'll support you Shine. Just like I did here, it's my job after all." I nodded to him. "That being said, no need to be a stranger! I have no idea what you're really up to, or how busy you'll be, but it sounds like this will be good for you. It would still be nice to see you every once in a while." I coughed a few times, and finally let a smile form on my face.

I really regretted my lack of self-care over since I got the news, but now wasn't the time to think about how much I bullied myself. I didn't really know what to say to Cyan though. Nothing came into my head, even if my thoughts were still clouded, I needed to say something to him before just leaving, but I couldn't think of much, other than one thing that is. "Thank you." I bowed my head.

He just pet me again and chuckled. I was still smiling, happy that this just happened. It was much better than the scenario I had in my head when it came to this, that's for sure, so I was more than happy with it. _As much as I don't want to leave… This conversation couldn't have gone much better._

"So, are you off for now?" Cyan stood back up, smiling down at me.

I returned his smile. "I guess so. It's probably best that I don't take too long, so I suppose I should be on my way."

He nodded towards me. "Sounds good Shine. Good luck out there! And make sure to stay safe!"

"I promise that I won't be gone forever!" I closed my eyes and tried to smile as brightly as I could at him. It wasn't forced like I thought it would have to be though. It was a natural smile, one that I didn't think I would get back anytime soon. "Goodbye!" I bowed my head and Cyan waved me off.

I turned around and went back to the entrance of what was now my old home. _This is the second time I have to change where I live… hopefully wherever I'm going won't lead to anything similar to what happened at the other two._ Once I made it to the front door, I observed the same exact sight that I did on my way in, and was able to naturally smile this time. I bowed my head down towards the rest of the rather small building. _Goodbye… all of you. I'm coming back though! And I won't be an emotionless tank!_

I walked out of the door, leaving the orphanage behind temporarily.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Really late chapter this time, I apologize for that, but what I mentioned last chapter is still going on, and despite its slow and steady improvement, the situation still requires most of attention at nearly all times of the day, so I hope you understand! I know things have gotten a little slow, but I promise I'm not giving up on this story. I think about it way too much to give up on it. Plus… I've spent waaaaay too much time working on it to just leave it hanging. :P

I want to give my usual thanks to everyone who has sent me a PM, a review or otherwise, though I haven't gotten one in a long while, it makes sense because of my inconsistent activity on the site. I appreciate all messages and reviews greatly though! Thank you to my beta reader for not holding my many typos against me! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	35. Mindless

**Kai**

Washing blood from your fur was never really fun, especially when it's as pure as snow. Granted, constantly bleeding into your fur wasn't really a common issue unless you were involved in all that a pokemon like me is in, so the issue probably wasn't too commonplace. I was more or less used to the feeling of it, both from myself and others, so that part didn't bug me anymore, it was just the cleaning process. That was the part I hated, for rather obvious reasons. It was hard to fully wash blood from your fur, especially when you couldn't leave any of it visible for later. _Why now of all times…_

I was a little far away from the Nest at the moment, being forced out on a task to complete for my… captors. It had been a long while since they reached out to me of all pokemon to do something as simple as kill one pokemon, so I hoped that they just forgot about me, but clearly not. I had to go kill someone they thought had documents leading to a discovery that they want to make… which of course he didn't. Poor mon was already in his later years of life, a kind chatot, and I had to end his life. I alway shivered after needing to do something like this, shivered for a long time, but I ended up getting used to it. I hate to say it, and I feel awful for it, but after I've been put into a situation like this as many times as I have… I'm just used to it. I can kill an innocent pokemon with little hesitation, that was that. I hated it about myself, but I had to acknowledge that part of me existing. It came into being because I'm just a coward, and then developed into something I got used to…

I shook my head and kept walking forward, heading to a pond I knew of that I could use to clean myself. There were a few landmarks around the Nest that I had passed quite a few times, namely ponds and the occasional change in green scenery. I was glad I took note of these places as I passed by them more because these ponds make my life much, much easier. Walking into the Nest while covered in blood, especially when you didn't just come back from a task is… not too good. Granted, I don't think Myra, Core, Shard, or anyone else at the Nest are suspicious of my double agent-like situation, but still, no need to raise it if that's the case. With that in mind, I always made sure that whenever I left and came back, there was not a bit of blood on my body at all. No risks needed to be taken, none at all. _Getting caught means one of two things… death or torture. The latter makes the former seem like nirvana, so I'd rather just stay away from any risks._

After a bit more walking, I started to feel uneasy, my body was tense, and my senses suddenly alert. I didn't change my pace or anything, but I started to pay much more attention to my surroundings, not wanting to get taken off guard. _The Nest is east… it came from there._ I stoically continued on my way, arriving at a small pond in the open field around me. This area was pretty appealing to the eye for sure, around the Nest, there was almost nothing other than open green fields, peaceful, relaxing scenery. There was the occasional group of trees and ponds all around, but everywhere within a fifteen mile radius of the Nest was either a field, or a small forest. Once you drifted further away though, the terrain is a lot less friendly. More mountains, dry lands, even deserts in some areas. Granted, I didn't know of any oceanic regions anywhere close, but on this side of the planet, there was everything other than that. If it was closer, more Ravens would probably know about all the terrain so close by, assuming they didn't come from there in the first place.

I arrived at the pond that was my destination and walked up to it, looking down at my reflection. An absol staring back at me, fur blodied and disgusting, a stoic expression meeting another.

…

 _I hate you._

I set each of my paws down on the bottom of the shallow pond, and began to rinse my fur off, slowly getting rid of the blood changing the color of it. I lowered my body and soaked the entirety of my coat, using all four of my paws at different times to get some of the blood that wouldn't just come off with water. I was still fully alert, despite looking as if I was oblivious, I hadn't forgotten about what my instincts told me, and I wouldn't. Not until I figured out where it was coming from.

After some time passed, the feeling I had never ceased, not even as I fully washed myself off. I made sure to get every bit of blood off of me, and sat near the edge of the pond. The water was rather warm, which was odd, considering the weather as of late, but I thought nothing of it, too focused on whatever omen I was sensing near me. I couldn't tell if I was worried or just confused, I was making my mind go in circles trying to determine what made my body tense so much, as if I was being watched. I began to calmly meditate, waiting for the feeling I had to either go away, or waiting to figure out the cause, and dealing with it promptly. _Who knows how long I'll-_

A loud splash was heard in front of me, and my eyes shot open. I jumped back, out of the pond, and crouched, as my fur dripped, absolutely soaked. I eyes the pond, but didn't see anything. It was odd, as that pond is shallow, so anything or anyone that fell into it and made a splash of that caliber would be visible, but I couldn't see a thing. I still felt uneasy, so for good measure, I started to charge a dark pulse, staring at the pond. I didn't move a muscles, focusing myself. _If there's something there… what could it be?_

I took a few steps slowly back and my horn began to glow, even though I still didn't detect any movement in front of me. I waited a decent while, staring at the pond and the surrounding area. I still didn't notice anything odd, but for good measure, I aimed my horn at the center of the pond, focusing an accumulated amount of energy on the tip of it. _If anything is there… there's a chance it's dangerous. No risks._

I shot off a dark pulse directly at the center of the pond, honestly expecting for my own paranoia to be shoved in my face, but instead, I heard a bit of a high pitch yelp, and then heard something tear through the water at a high speed before my attack reached it. I saw a rippling line in the pond going in the opposite direction of the attack, and then end off near the edge. I stared at it while my attack hit the center of the pond, creating an eruption of water all over the place, splashing my already drenched body some more. I took a second to process the possibilities of the situation and gave a sigh. _I can only think of one way this can happen…_

I sat on the ground in front of the pond to wait for my fur to dry, thinking about the only reason I would hear a large splash like that, and subsequently see ripples of that sort in the water. "How long have you been stalking me?"I generally asked, not really knowing where my shadow was.

I heard a nervous chuckle and watched as a group of light colors formed in front of me, over the pond. "Not toooooo long. I just managed to track you down." A froslass took form a over the body of water, and floated over to me. "How did you know I was here? I thought I had you fooled."

"You literally fell right in front of me… and wait, you can fly, how did you fall?" _I don't understand her…_

"Heh… umm… You see… I'm a pretty big klutz at times…" She shook her head and flew higher. "I may have these powers of flight, but they're not perfect! Sometimes I drop off randomly because it's hard to keep in the air at a steady position!"

"Or you get distracted and lose focus." I interrupted, knowing how she operates now.

"H-Hey! Not true! It takes time and practice!" She visibly blushed.

"Practice that you very obviously have. I've seen you mach-battle before, you clearly have no trouble flying." Shard was probably the most impressive one in the Nest who I've seen. I had a practice battle with her, and she absolutely mopped the floor with me. It was hardly a fight, I couldn't touch her, and she had power to back up her incredibly quick movements. Plus, she could make herself virtually invisible, create hailstorms, an odd beam similar to what I recently taught Kuro, and many other random techniques that she made up herself. An incredibly talented froslass she was, her only weakness being her… well, overly lax personality.

"B-But even pros screw up sometimes! How would you know? You don't have wings or anything!" _Not currently…_

"If you say so… I'll submit." I sighed, not really wanting to have a back and forth with her. Shard liked to try and get me to talk, even if that sometimes consisted of stalking me and forcing it. She has done that by the way, beat me up so I would talk. I didn't hold it against her, but I wasn't exactly in the best mood, so I may say something I regret if this keeps up. I decided to just close my eyes and relax myself, clearing my mind of what I was doing not too long ago.

After some time, Shard flew down and sat next to me, and I could feel her eyes burning through my skin. _If you're going to stare at me… make it less obvious._ After about ten minutes had passed, I still felt her eyes on me, and it was starting to make me uneasy. I began to wonder why she had her eyes glued to me, but no reasonable explanation came to mind. Eventually, I decided just to bite the bullet and let out a sigh. "Why exactly were you stalking me?"

She let out a little giggle. "Whatever do you mean?~ I did no such thing!" She rather forcefully put a hand on my back, almost knocking me over. "Just following you around to make sure you're okay!"

"Not much different... " I muttered, though a bit curious. "What made you think I wasn't safe for any reason?"

"Umm… hello? You just up and left! It's too early in the morning to be doing things like that!" _Was she watching me as I left my room too..?_

"I wasn't doing anything dangerous, just out and about for a bit." I lied. Not like I had any amount of choice though.

"The explain why you were covered in blood when you came back!" I flinched a little bit, almost forgetting about the blood in the first place. "If you weren't in any danger, then tell me that at least." She lost her carefree tone for a second, which was a bit off-putting.

"I was attacked on my way back, both parties survived, it just got messy. No need to worry." I said calmly. I actually felt the need to make sure she wasn't worried, which was unusual, but I paid it no mind. I was pretty used to lying through my teeth to pokemon, especially those of the Nest, particularly my fellow leaders. I had to talk with them a lot, particularly about the Void, so playing dumb and making sure that they knew nothing of where I came from was imperative to get good at. Otherwise… I honestly don't know what happens if you're caught as an undercover Void member, but it most likely wouldn't be pretty.

Shard was giving me an uneasy stare. "How did all that blood get on you if both sides made it out alive?"

"There were a few of them, all of which got injured, all of which bled. No fatal injuries were given to them, but as I said, it was messy." I kept my voice calm and collected. Ravens couldn't act like they don't kill, but it was still a last resort to them, even when it came to the Void in some cases. Obviously if someone like Luna, Aven, Grace, or me if they ever found out, were at the mercy of the Nest, they would probably have us killed on the spot. Luna for obvious reasons, Aven because he would be in the same boat as me, and Grace because… she's Grace.

Shard drifted closer to me, beginning to give me an odd discomfort. "You do know that I'll help you with anything you need, right? You're my friend after all! Ask for anything and I'll help you!" _Like I deserve to be friends with someone like yourself…_

"I'll remember that." I responded, losing my stoic expression for just a quick second. "Nothing is wrong though, I assure you. The attack didn't last long, nor did it end in deaths of any kind." _Why can't that just be the truth..? Why..?_

Shard stared at me intently, and I couldn't help but see her through my peripherals. Her oval eyes were focused intently on me, and I felt a rather uncomfortable shiver, not coming from the frost that coated her skin, but the look she had somehow made it feel as if I had been soaked in freezing water. It wasn't out of hostility though… nothing of the sort. If anything, it seemed opposite to that, a stare laced with concern. Yet, it made my skin crawl at the same time, and I had no idea why. I felt… guilty. That was obvious though, from not only the actions that took place early this morning, but from how much I've manipulated those in the Nest, from random Ravens, to my prodege, to her… I've said so many lies.

"If you say it's all okay, I'll believe you." Shard sighed. "But try not to make a girl worry so much! At least say something next time you leave like that! Geez…. When I saw you covered in blood like that… I thought you were on the brink of death! I thought you were bleeding out right before my eyes and I was about to bring an absol corpse back to the Nest with me! You petrified me!" She took deep breaths, making sure the entirety of the open fields around us could hear her. A single gust of wind blew by, which I barely noticed, too ensnared by Shard's outburst.

I took a second to think about everything she just said, and told myself to analyze it later. "Sorry, I will inform someone when I decide to leave in the future." _That'll make things harder for me, but I feel like I need to appease what she wants… even though I'm not sure why._

"Thank you Kai! Sorry for the eh… yelling. I get urges to let my voice flow sometimes, and when I'm worried, I have the perfect opportunity to do so!" She brightly smiled, even if whatever she was saying was most likely just covering for her losing it. _This is almost like what happened with Kuro…_

"Not a problem. I'm sorry for worrying you." I apologized, actually feeling as if I needed to.

"Don't sweat it! Our friendship won't be ruined by such a thing! I'll make sure our bond stays as close as I can possibly make it! I might choke you a little though." I let out a small sigh, somewhat relieved that she wouldn't be treating me differently because of this little altercation. _Wait, what was that last pa-_

I felt my windpipe get practically cut off from the oxygen outside of my body, as two appendages wrapped around my neck tightly. Shard was floating a bit off my back, hugging my neck to the point where I practically couldn't breathe. "H-Hey.." I tried to talk in a scratchy and strained voice. _This froslass has way too much arm strength for her own good…_

She released my neck, and I coughed lightly a little, bringing one of my paws up to rub the area that Shard was grasping in between her arms. _That probably left a mark…_ I turned to look at her, and she was floating in place, giggling to herself. "Sorry about that, kinda hard to hold back on a hug. Heh… At least I didn't break anything this time!" _This time..?_

I shook my head and recovered. "Make sure you don't incapacitate your allies…"

"Don't worry, I haven't ever taken it that far! At least… not often. I only knocked Naru out like three times, nothing more!" She happily chimed.

"You knocked out your prodege via suffocation..?" _Is that not against the rules..?_

"Only three times! Four if you count that… and six if you count perfecting the snow cloak recently… and eleven if you count the training mishaps… twenty-four if you-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. You should stop making your student pass out like that… It's not healthy for them, and I'm fairly certain it's not healthy for your reputation at the Nest either." _Did she really knock out Naru more than twenty times..?_

"I have a hard time holding back! That's my weakness you know! I'm sure you're aware of my stats, so you've gotta understand a little bit!" I was well aware of the fact that Shard, overall, was the second highest in the Nest in terms of battling ability. To go off of that, she's also the only one in the entirety of the Nest to have a perfect score in offense, based on both her physical strength, her immense speed, and her talent in manipulating her element, along with a bunch of her own tricks. This froslass is the only one I know who can feasibly stand a chance against some of the Void's higher ups. She and two others are the only walls in the way of the Void taking out the Nest completely and utterly. _Let's hope you have some pillars to support you…_

"Aren't you training to fix that weakness though..?" I asked her, curious about her progress.

"Erm… Heh… I've been prioritizing some new tricks over control to be honest. I can't help myself! There's so much I can do with my tactics! And beyond that, more stuff I can pass on to Naru!" She said with glee. "That girl has enough talent to handle more than I can currently teach her, so I need to know more to teach! Problem being that… erm… I still have a rather hard time holding myself back so… yeaaahhhh…" Shard awkwardly chuckled, and I sighed, but didn't feel annoyed at all. If anything, I was impressed that Shard was more focused on teaching her prodege more than improving on herself, and even if I was the same way as of now, it was for an entirely different reason.

"You should be careful in the future… Wouldn't want you getting kicked out of the Nest because you're overly cruel to your students." I told her, and she playfully scoffed.

"And you've never taken Kuro down to his last peg? According to Naru, he's come back to their room in pieces after your training before." _In pieces..?_

"Obviously I push him, but I don't think I've ever knocked him out. Call it his stamina, but I actually have control over my output." I looked to the ground, and something overtook my features, which caught me off guard, but I didn't resist. I just let it naturally flow, it had been way too long.

Shard let out a giggle, and I looked back up to her. She just stared at me with a teasing grin. "Never seen that before Kai~" I instinctively lost what I had just gained a few moments ago and averted my eyes, my face heating a bit. _Why did I just..?_

"Why don't we head back now? I need to get ready for Naru to get here so we can get some more training done!" Shard smiled and happily floated higher into the air, and then made her way in the direction of the Nest. I stood still for a moment, thinking to myself, before following her lead on the ground.

 _I guess I'm free today…_

* * *

 **Vero**

My mind panicked as soon as we heard that loud noise from outside, but now, it was a mix. I was still panicked for sure, but now I was also just… confused. Not a good combination. A discolored mawile stood before Kuro and I, looking rather… blank. No expression was present on their oddly colored eyes, and no mannerisms that showed any type of… anything. I gulped and stared forward, getting into a battle stance out of fear more than anything. Kuro was to my right and he did the same, but he didn't look nearly as confused as I did. There was still fear present in his eyes though. _Almost looks like he knows this thing…_

The mawile took a step forward, into our cell of sorts, and immediately locked their eyes on Kuro. In response, he took a step back and glared forward. The unique appearance present on this metallic beast worried me, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions quite yet. The only thing keeping my from saying something to whatever this was happened to be the uneasy look that Kuro was giving them. I couldn't bite my tongue forever though, I had to get more from this situation, so I took a breath and stared at who or whatever this was. "Who are you..?"

Instead of a normal response, the mawile bent his head back, and lurched it forward, slamming its massive jaw on the ground, mouth opening, facing Kuro. "Vero! Keep your guard up!" He shouted, but before I could respond, a glowing, light orb shot out of the mawile's mouth, right at Kuro. His eyes widened and he slumped down onto the ground, the attack barely skimming over his ears, colliding with the powerful rock behind us. A very small crack formed on the wall, but that wasn't to be noted right now. Whoever this was, Kuro knew of them, and they seemed dangerous. That's all the information I needed.

Before another attack could be shot at us, I zipped towards the mawile and jammed my leg into their stomach, sliding them back out of the makeshift cell we happened to be trapped in. Kuro and I both ran out of the cramped rocky room and out into the rest of the area, a slightly more open rocky room. _Arceus I hate this place…_ I locked eyes with the mawile, but they seemed to be uninterested with me, immediately looking at Kuro as he dashed out of the indestructible cell as well. As soon as he did though, the mawile shot at him like a bullet, and Kuro took a smack from the giant jaw head on, forcing him out of the cave and back into the open area, surrounded by a few trees, and some not so friendly pokemon. He rolled on the ground and into one of the trees, quickly shaking off the impact and staring back at the mawile.

They were still facing Kuro though, and proceeded to dash out of the cave, right at him. Kuro noticed this and stood strongly in front of them, waiting for a blow to counter. Once they went for another swing on Kuro, he dodged under it swiftly, and rammed into the center of its body with his head. Not much damage was done, and the mawile went for another strike, to which Kuro avoided with a side step to the left. I rushed out of the cave towards the two, and noticed that a few of the trees were now knocked over, and there was an unconscious golem right outside of the cave area. Beyond that, a few pokemon were hiding behind some of the still standing trees, almost as if they were cowering.

I refocused on the battle going on between Kuro and the mawile, wanting to find an opportunity to join in and help. I began to focus energy on each of the tips of my claws, making them spark up a little. I aimed at the mawile, prepared hit them with as hard of an attack as I could muster, but as I was about to launch it, something collided with my back and killed my concentration on the spot. I quickly turned around to see a lillipup, who had seemingly just headbutted me, even thought they looked terrified.

"D-D-D-Demon…" The little pup stuttered out, sounding petrified. _I don't like where this is going…_ Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small collection of light, each of the particles slowly gathering together, combining with one another like atoms, forming a larger eye catcher.

I turned to face it directly, and as soon as I did, a massive beam was launched straight towards me, sparking with intensity orange intensity. I rolled out of the way right as it was going to collide with me, and it proceeded to go off into the forest, making contact with the edges of many trunks as it did so. My eyes shot back to the source, which was a stoutland making a mad dash at me. As they were about to cave my skull in with their own, I placed a forepaw on the side of their body, and redirected their momentum so they ended up running off to the side. Not too far after this happened, they quickly stopped themselves and turned back to me, and I felt a bead of sweat roll down my cheek. _This isn't good…_

The fact that there was a mawile here currently fighting it out with Kuro who quite clearly had malicious intent towards him was bad… To make things worse, we're 'demons' to the locals here, so they aren't going to realize that we're here to help them. Neither of us can attack any of the natives here, so we need to find a way to send this mawile off quickly… or else it's just going to get worse. _How do we fight a battle where we can't even attack half of the ones giving us opposition..?_

I didn't take my focus off of the stoutland eyeing me down, but stole a glance at whatever Kuro was going through. He seemed to be backpedaling from the mawile, dodging attacks and trying to find an opening to give one back. That mawile was quick though… much more so than any other mawile I've imagined. Typically, the jaw on the back of their head stops them from moving fluently, but this one was just swiftly sliding slickly off the ground, as if its body had little to no weight behind it. It was clearly keeping Kuro on guard, he looked as if he was having a bit of trouble avoiding each move from the mawile, but he still managed, even if barely. _We could totally give that mawile a beating if we could both focus on them._

I focused all of attention back on the stoutland again, but instead of attacking me, they rushed to the lillipup that distracted me earlier and lifted them up, then locked eyes with me. We stared at each other, and neither of us held any malice. In reality, we both wanted the same thing really. Both of us were here to protect, I just wished that both sides were aware of it. Neither the stoutland, nor I made a move, we just stared at one another, near motionlessly. The few seconds that passed felt like hours, both sides tense for different causes. After the long seconds passed however, I turned away and dashed towards Kuro and the mawile. _Maybe not attacking will be enough to show them…_

Kuro was still being a very slippery umbreon, not allowing himself to get hit. Not to mention, even if he did get hit, the guy could take thirty more after that if need be, so this mawile wasn't gaining any ground yet. Due to the way that those two have been moving this whole time, I was now positioned behind them, but it was from here that I noticed something odd. This mawile came from the Void, almost no doubt, and yet they had been jetting after Kuro this whole time, not paying any mind to the other Raven here, or any of the civilians either. Even if nobody other than Kuro has really had a chance to go back and forth with them, it was odd that this mawile didn't feel the need to attack any of the civils here, or me, another Raven for that matter. _Then again… I have no idea what this mawile is, or what Kuro knows…_

I decided to cut my thoughts off for now and ran at the mawile from behind, claws ready. I crossed my arms in front of me as I ran, until I arrived right behind the mawile, to which I slashed them directly on their back. The force seemed to move them forward a few inches, but I winched at a stinging sensation in my claws, and noticed that the skin of the mawile hadn't been cut at all, nothing but a barely visible scratch was there. They turned their head back toward me, still holding nothing but a blank, emotionless stare. It was admittedly off-putting, but I held my battle stance either way.

As we had our eyes trapped on one another, a small flurry of dark purple orbs connected with the back of their head, forcing them towards me. I reacted to the situation by suitably slamming a hind paw into their spine, sending the mawile stumbling back towards Kuro. He hopped on the opportunity presented right away, and clenched his jaw around one of their arms, turning and flinging the mawile into one of the many trees around the area, connecting with a very audible smack. I jogged up next to Kuro, and we both faced the presumed Void member.

"Do you know the story with… this one?" I asked out loud, not taking my eyes away from the very quickly recovering mawile.

"Yes and no…" Kuro took a breath. "I have no clue where he came from or why, but the Void has him under a trance of some kind, as if they control each one of his moves." _A trance..?_ "Other than that, I have nothing, but he seems overly focused on me for some reason."

"I saw that too… the guy really wants you badly hurt." Speaking of, said mawile finally stood up fully, and stared at the two of us. Or stared at Kuro rather.

"You're telling me…" The mawile ran at us again, and Kuro and I both readied ourselves.

Right before I was about to jet forward though, from out of nowhere, a white blur came in front of us and tackled the mawile down, sliding against the ground a decent distance. After a momentary stun, I inspected closer, and identified the blur as a vigoroth, who was attempting to claw the mawile's head off it seemed. The sight was actually quite brutal, or it would be, if said vigoroth managed to do anything more than scratch the surface of his skin. The mawile didn't seem to resist at all though, he just took all of it, not fighting back. I found that so odd… that he didn't seem to be aggressive at all unless it was directed at Kuro.

Before I could process any more, I felt the ground under one of my hind paws crack, and the instant that happened, I pushed off of it and jumped, as I saw Kuro roll away at the same time. In place of where I was just standing was a very small hole, which very easily could have wrapped around my leg, and trapped me there. I traced my eyes along the very small, nearly invisible lines in the ground connecting to that hole, and I spotted a marowak, who seemed to be aiming the bone in their hand right at me. Before I mentally prepared to dodge though, Kuro rushed up to the marowak, and locked his jaw on said bone, flipping over them and tearing it from their hands. He then tossed it a decent distance away, and ran back towards me as I landed back on the ground, now facing away from the mawile.

As the suddenly desperate marowak ran for their weapon, Kuro stared at the still pinned mawile with a confused expression. "Why is he being attacked..?" He asked nobody in particular.

"He's a fairy, isn't he..?" I suggested. "The locals here hate both fairies and… well, us. If it were more populated, this would be a total war zone right now…"

"That's true. Most likely the reason he's being attacked, but then the next question. Why isn't he fighting back..?" A shadow ball from out of sight came to us and hit Kuro, but he barely flinched. He just kind of took it and looked back at the mawile. "We can't attack any of the locals here, so we need to find a way to single him out." A different bright orb came at me this time, but it wasn't very subtle, so I was able to bend my body to dodge it, and I loosened my stance to make sure I didn't get caught by a random strike from one of the civils here. The last thing I needed was an injury from the pokemon we were attempting to protect in the first place.

"You said he's being controlled..?" I asked Kuro, but before he could respond, the vigoroth looked as if they gave up on the scratching, and jumped off of the mawile, looking rather tired from the constant attacks. As soon as they did, the mawile flipped his jaw over the top of his body, and it began to glow a light silver.

"He is, by whom I don't know." Kuro responded to me quickly, before a burst of silver light came from the mawile's jaw, once again, aimed at Kuro. "Not specifically at least." He rolled out of the way of the attack, and it once more, hit a tree behind this small civilization of pokemon, pulling on its roots.

"Regardless, we need to either lead this guy away, or knock him out… or disable him somehow," I proposed.

"You're right, make sure to be careful with-"

"Hey!"

An unfamiliar female voice went through the air, sounding rather young, though older than Kuro, and most likely me too. The weird thing about it was… wherever it was coming from.

"Metal Face! Stop messing around and hurry it up! You are permitted to kill anyone who tries to stop you from retrieving the target, so go buck wild!" The voice had a very odd mix of annoyance, boredom, and excitement. _Metal face..? The mawile..?_ I looked up in curiosity, and it seemed as if everyone located in the area did as well, even the little lillipup that attempted to attack me. I squinted my eyes while looking up, seeing what looked like… particles, very very small particles high up in the sky. I could just barely make them out, but from the color contrast against the sky, they looked like a light purple or violet color, with a slight bit of pink. I couldn't make out a clear shape though. Either way, what the voice said didn't sound pleasant.

Kuro and I both slowly turned our eyes back to the mawile, who was standing still, staring back at us. His jaw began to glow, this time, rather than a bright silver, a pulsating red. Before I could even say anything, he jumped at the two of us, coming to the space in the center of our bodies. I readied myself to jump back, but before I could even bend my legs at all, the mawile swung in a circles fiercely, slamming both Kuro and I away with his jaw.

An ache traveled from my head to the tips of my claws, my body flying through the air until I smacked into a tree and got the wind knocked out of me. I fell to the ground, coughing a little as I lifted my head to look at the mawile. He looked no different, and the red glow from his jaw was gone, but something certainly changed about him. Based on what the voice said, he wasn't trying to, or allowed rather, to kill anyone besides the 'target,' assumed to be Kuro. Considering the words that came from the sky and that last attack, clearly this wasn't the case anymore.

I Pushed myself off of the ground and shook my head, glancing around to try and find Kuro before going in for an attack. I didn't see him immediately, but I did catch sight of each and every one of the pokemon here other than Kuro, and they all had the same look of unease and error on their faces. It's possible that a number of things caused it, whether that be the sudden attack that they just witnessed, or the voice coming from what seemed like nowhere, or a combination of the two. Either way, all of them looked terrified, and I couldn't blame them.

Unable to spot Kuro yet, I locked my eyes onto the mindless mawile again, who seemed to be doing the same thing I was a second ago, searching for the umbreon. I took a deep breath and crouched, getting ready to go into a full speed rush with only one thing tearing away at my mind.

 _This isn't going to be easy…_

* * *

Hello Readers!

I hope all of you are well! Other than that, I'm not too sure what to say! :D

I do have a question for you all though. How do you feel about me starting another story alongside this one? It won't be related to this one, but recently I have been enlightened with quite a few ideas that I kind of want to make into a story, which I won't give away quite yet. (Not that it's anything unique :p) I want input from all of you, if you want me to write that story along with this one, or if I should finish this one before moving onto yet another. There are a few things to consider here, which I'll try to list to the best of my ability. For one, updates on Renewed Life would be a bit slower, as I would alternate between the two from chapter to chapter, and seeing as my uploads have already had to slow down a bit, I'm not too sure how you all feel about that to an even higher degree, so I want to know your thoughts! Something else to keep in mind is that this story isn't exactly close to done :p I have a lot of future events in mind, and based on progression of previous in story events, I predict that this isn't going to be finished anytime soon, especially seeing as, in about two and a half months, a year will have passed since I uploaded the first chapter to this story. And oh my what a year it has been :p But enough about that, One last thing to consider about this is that, if I'm waiting to finish this story to start another, that doesn't mean this one will be rushed by any means. I plan on taking my time either way, so no need to worry about that. Please give me your thoughts if you can!

One last announcement thing to make is that, in the future, assuming I decided to write lemons to tie in with this story (At the humble request of.. A lot of you :p) They will be in a separate story, connected to this one, as I don't think that lemons would really fit into this specifically too well. Plus I want to give people the option to not read it, because that's not everyone's thing, and I get that, so they'll be in a separate story, and the chapters will be in chronological order from whatever point they happen in the story. I.E. chapter one over there would be the earliest lemon in the story. I will let everyone know when that would get updated over here too, so that's what's going on with that!

Finally, my usual thanks to everyone who has sent me a pm, review, all that good stuff, I really appreciate it and it really brightens my days up! Finally, thank you to my beta reader for cleaning up my chapters as much as they can with all of my typos! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	36. A Study

**Kuro**

Pushing myself off of the ground, I brought my eyes back up to the mawile that had just sent me back swiftly. That last attack hurt, much more so than any small hits I took before. Just that impact alone was enough to give me a bad feeling about the rest of what this battle could turn out to be. I shook it off and got into my stance, and the mawile that had been gunning for me this whole time stared back, still completely blank. With that last hit, and the voice that seemingly came from the heavens a minute ago, I was starting to get nervous. It was clear that this mawile was done playing around. _I wish the locals here would leave… It's too likely that they'll be hurt…_

I wanted to formulate a plan to maybe get some of the locals away, which was kind of hard because of certain traits I had which they didn't like, but I didn't have much of a chance to think before the mawile shot at me again. Instead of using his jaw like before, he looked as if he was ready to grab me with his arms, based on his position. I took a breath and brought out my tendrils, slamming them into the ground in front of me to send myself into the air and backwards. I wanted to hit off of a tree and back at him, but I couldn't quite make it that far, as the mawile gave rapid chase, jumping up from the ground and grabbing me anyway.

As we slowly descended from the sky, I got a good look at this thing's face as I was struggling to get free. The eyes… discolored from normal, but that wasn't the only thing about them that bothered me. Along with the mostly blank expression, there was a hint of something deep within his eyes… almost like sadness… or regret. I couldn't quite place my paw on what it was, but I could tell that there was something there, just clearly not the first thing on his mind… that would be attacking me.

The two of us descended to the ground, and the grip the mawile had on me tightened to the point where I felt like my ribs were being cracked. I grit my teeth hard, trying not to acknowledge the pain. I was quite good at that after all. I tried as best I could to focus on regaining control of my tendrils rather than focus on the pain, and once I managed to get a hold on them again, I pushed against the force of the mawile's arms with them, making his grip decidedly lighter, although still evident. Personally I didn't care how hard of a grip he had on me as long as I prevented my ribs from shattering. I leaned my head forward and clamped my jaw around his shoulder, hoping that it would help in my endeavor of getting free from the iron grip around my body. After tightening my jaw as much as possible though, I couldn't even break skin, and it seemed as if there was no reaction of pain whatsoever, not even a twitch or a wince. I unlocked my fangs from him, barely leaving a mark of any kind, still pushing against his arms with my tendrils, which was exceedingly more difficult than I expected. It was straining the nerves on them, which was, in turn, creating more pain for me to suppress while trying to get free.

My resistance against his grip began to falter, and I felt his arms closing in on me again, making me wince. I nearly got the point of my tendrils rubbing against one another, and if it came to that and they started to press together, that would just make everything even worse. Luckily Though, I felt the grip of the mawile significantly loosen as his head lurched forward a little, very close to mine. I used the opportunity to ram skulls with metallic monster, which made my ears ring for a second, but gave me the opportunity to break out of his grip and jump back, immediately retracting my tendrils so my inevitable recoil wouldn't get too bad. I caught a glimpse of Vero, who was right behind the mawile, and I concluded that she was the reason I was able to break out of the death grip, which I was very thankful for.

After a few seconds, the mawile flipped its jaw to aim at me, and I knew what was coming, problem being that I felt a rather hard impact on my back just as the mawile was readying his attack. I nearly toppled over, and a hitmontop had slid in front of me, facing towards me with a harsh stare, clearly unaware of the mindless machine of a pokemon behind them aiming an attack in their direction. They stood on their spiked feet threateningly, but I ignored the air that they gave off and rushed at them, tackling them to the ground and then rolling over them. I stood still in the middle on the two, not facing either one directly. The mawile shot off a large, glowing beam forcefully at me, and I gulped, bracing myself.

The attack roughly made contact with me, and I dug my claws into the ground and focused really hard on making sure the attack didn't push me back, even if it hurt like hell. I tensed my entire body until the attack let up, and I took a deep breath, and then the recoil hit.

I lowered closer to the ground, legs shaking a little as a harsh and unrelenting wave of pain surged through my body. I took deep breaths to try and quickly get a hold on myself before the mawile went for another attack of any kind, however, I saw the hitmontop that I had just shielded run close to me after getting up from my light tackle, and they brought one of their almost spherical, spiked feet into my stomach, causing me to lose whatever concentration on recovery I just had. I fell completely to the ground, breathing quickly from the unexpected attack. Instead of letting me recover, the hitmontop then decided to flip over and spin on their head, rapidly spinning around and connecting a much stronger kick with the side of my head, sending me across the ground, tossing and turning as I slid.

Once friction caught up with me and I was stable, I shook my head and pushed myself up, feeling more pain than I would have liked around my stomach, ribs, and now my cranium. At the very least, I was on all fours and stable again, so I was ready to move out of the way from an attack if need be. I looked at the hitmontop, not back on their feet, and glared at them with something between annoyance and anger. I just saved them a lot of pain, and I got repaid with two harsh attacks right after my recoil hit… which only made them that much worse. I didn't have time to vocalize this mix of emotions, as the mawile was quickly approaching me again, not paying any mind to the hitmontop I wasn't very pleased with right now. I sloppily crouched and readied to dodge an attack, but instead of one coming, Vero rushed to the side of the mawile and accurately slammed a hind leg into his stomach, pushing him back a little.

The mawile, instead of resuming his lock onto me, turned to look at her and very quickly swung his jaw with malicious intent. Vero reacted quickly and slipped by it, not taking the attack, and then pressed the center of one of her forepaws to his chest, Shooting off a point blank purple blast that sent him to the air. She followed up on this initial attack, jumping up to the mawile and kicking harshly again into his chest, sending him to the ground, though he showed no real signs of pain from the two rather heavy attacks. This gave me the opportunity to observe something about the mawile though, namely how Vero's attacks may have not caused much pain, but they worked… they pushed him back. _He was caught off guard by that kick…_

He may have tried to hit Vero there, but he still seemed hyperfocused on me, and perhaps we could use that to our advantage. It's possible that he was only prepared to take attacks from me, and not from the others around him, so that may have been a small weakness in the makeup of whatever this artificial pokemon was. _I hope so at least… Without a weakness, I don't like where this is going._

I watched as the mawile slowly stood up, and used that opportunity to dash beside Vero, making sure the two of us were both ready for what was most likely going to be yet another onslaught of attacks from both the locals and whatever this mawile was. It certainly was interesting… the pokemon we were specifically here to make sure nothing bad happened to are subsequently making our job that much harder because I decided that it would be better that I went here instead of Naru. Granted, I'm particularly glad I made that choice if we're dealing with this, I really wouldn't want Naru to be in a dangerous battle, let alone against a mindless mawile. _Better me than her…_

"We need to draw this guy away from here somehow…" Vero said from my right. I didn't look at her, still locked onto the mawile.

"That might not be too hard if he's stuck trying to attack me, but there could be more of the Void nearby if he's here. His controller needs to be close by too, so leaving might not be the best option." I replied, honestly tempted to take the offer of getting out of this place, but realizing the risk in that option.

"You're right, probably behind that voice earlier too." _That voice came from nowhere…_ "There were some particles in the sky while she was talking, which makes me think that she's a psychic a little ways from here."

"That's plausible, but it also means it doesn't end with this mawile… so try not to overdo it until we know exactly what else we're up against." _Hopefully it's not too much more…_

"Got it. Same goes for you, especially since this guy seems to have some serious bloodlust for your flesh."

"Right…" I took a deep breath. "He's gunning for me, and it seems like your surprise attack caught him off guard. I don't think his mind is programmed to focus on much else than attacking me, so you might be able to hit him hard when he's not ready." I saw Vero nod out of the corner of my eye. _That's better than having no idea what to do at least…_

Without any hesitation, the mawile jumped at the two of us, and Vero decided to retreat to the side, preparing to sneak attack the mawile later on I presumed. I ran right at the mawile, wanting to get his attention even more if at all possible. I saw the same hitmontop from before out of the corner of my eye and grew a little worried, but if this mawile and I had a heated battle going on, I doubt he would try and interfere with either side. _With that in mind… may as well not hold anything back. Shouldn't be an issue if the locals here don't approach too close._

I took a quick breath in and shot two shadow balls at the mawile as I ran toward him, both of which doing little more than make him ever so slightly flinch. My intention wasn't exclusively harming him with those attacks, the intention was to be a little flashy to keep the locals from coming over and trying anything. Attacking me was bad because it would just make this battle harder, and I couldn't fight back at all. Attacking the mawile was bad for the exact opposite reason, he was very capable of fighting back, and seeing as they looked as if they originated from the Void, I guessed that he wouldn't have a problem crushing any of these locals' skulls under his foot if need be. Just an assumption, but It seemed like a safe one.

Once the initial attacks from me were shot off, I launched a dark pulse into his chest, this time actually making him budge. Not by anything more than a few centimeters, but it was better than him still being practically frozen to the ground. I pushed up, readying another attack, but was instead smacked away by a swift swing of the his jaw, which I barely saw coming. I slid back, but ended up being able to keep my balance, which was good, because another bright silver beam was launched directly at me right after I was launched a bit aways, which I was able to sidestep because I hadn't lost my hold on the ground. I dashed back at the mawile, attempting to stay close, as that was most likely the best way to keep his attention solely on me, subsequently keeping the locals away, assuming they didn't have a total death wish. Not to mention, they were scared of both dark and fairy types, or at hated them at least, so they most likely wouldn't be too fond of approaching us.

I got in really close with the mawile, and dodged another swing from his jaw, predicting it this time, and countering with another dark pulse, once more looking as if it did minimal damage. The combat methods he used began to escalate into throwing occasional kicks towards me, which were just as swift at how he swung his jaw, if not more so. I avoided the first two kicks, and another jaw swing, but I was then hit in the chest, courtesy of the mawile's leg. The impact made me flinch, but I coughed once and shook it off quickly, unable to afford being taken down a notch. I rammed my head into his stomach roughly, pushing against him and slowly sliding him along the ground for a second, but this was canceled out by him slamming his arm into the top of my back, which nearly made me lose balance and fall to the ground, though I managed to stand strong against him. I hopped a little off the ground and slammed my tail into the side of his head with force, which did just as much as the rest of my attacks.

I used the attack I delivered to propel myself a little bit away from the mawile, standing on the ground and facing him from a few feet away. His attacks from earlier hurt, but it wasn't enough to affect me much. Shard, Kai, Grace, they all hit me with much heavier attacks, so I was more or less used to it. That being said, they would certainly add up, and he had to be doing way more damage to me than I was returning. It seemed like I wasn't hurting him five percent of what he was hitting me with, and even if I'm not the best with offense, that was next to nothing. I would have to turn up my attacks a bit if I wanted to do something, but that required recoil, and I would need Vero to cover me if I used one of my more dangerous ones. I would be more than comfortable with that plan if this mawile didn't have some kind of obsession with trying to make my skull shatter. _It's not like this is going anywhere though… I need to do something at least._

I focused in on the interior of my body, controlling the flow of my energy as much as I could with as little time as was necessary. I had certainly gotten better at doing all of this on a whim, but it still required focus, and no matter how swiftly I could charge up a very damaging attack, being hit with the recoil afterwards would always be the same, and always have a repeated result of me slumping down in a weaker state for a few seconds. If it was my only way to deal significant damage though… then I had to deal with it regardless.

My body began to emit a very dim purple glow, and I locked eyes with the mawile as he ran towards me again. I sprinted at him as well, wanting to close the gap between as soon as I could. He flipped his jaw over his head, attempting to slam the thing over mine, which was a different maneuver than the swings he was using earlier. I moved my head out of the way, but still got half of my body caught by the slam, which forced me to the ground with intense pressure. This attack felt harder than the others, like it rattled my bones, and made me let out a measly grunt in pain, but I held myself from doing anything more. I leapt off of the ground and headbitted the mawile in the stomach, and released four large streams of purple light from my body, one of them point blank into the mawile's chest. It lifted him off of the ground a little bit, until the second beam connected in what looked like virtually the same area. He flew back more and slid across the ground, while the last two beams locked onto him and both made contact with his midsection at the same time, creating a thick dust cloud from the impact. He quickly slid out of said cloud and contacted a tree with a loud thud.

I took a few slow steps back and dissipated the glow from my body, taking a deep breath. My recoil was going to hit in a few seconds, so I had to be ready to take it and not look like I was an easy target. Once the aftermath of my attack cleared, I saw the mawile on the ground, against the tree that he connected with. It only took a few seconds for him to slowly push himself up, but at the very least, his body was scratched in many places, namely around his midsection, and I would imagine his back too. He was still up and ready, but I certainly did a number on him, which was the most important thing here. Any amount of damage helped, especially since whatever this guy was, he seemed to consist of nothing that could be considered normal in the slightest, both in body and in mind.

The mawile stared at me, clearly not down for the count, and began to dash at me once more, right as I felt my recoil kick in. I dug my claws into the ground and grit my teeth, staring at the mawile as he approached, not feeling comfortable to move with the mass amounts of pain flowing through my veins. He was starting to get rather close, and I started to worry that I wouldn't recover fast enough to dodge, but right as the thought crossed my mind, I saw a very small purple streak in the air very swiftly come from out of my sight, and slash across the Mawile as he was sprinting towards me. The light stopped him from sprinting altogether, and his eyes changed, as if he felt something for once. At the end of the streak of light that I saw, was Vero, her claw held back as if she just slashed someone with it, also covered in some kind of orange substance. I had no idea of the source, until I glanced back at the mawile, and noticed that he was now missing an arm. And yet, the fact that he was down a limb wasn't what had me so intrigued, it was the thick, orange substance leaking from his body instead of blood. It coated the leaves and grass under him, and had a rather sickeningly strong smell of rubber.

Vero had just as much of a confused stare as I did, also put more for a loop by the liquid rather than the fact that she just cut the arm off of a pokemon. I didn't let my guard down though, missing limb or not, this guy still had to be dangerous either way. After a second though, I realized that my thoughts weren't exactly correct. Yes, he was certainly still dangerous, but I didn't think that his lack of a limb would last such a short amount of time.

Just as soon as Vero sliced it off, the orange fluids that were draining from the mawile's body started to slowly solidify around where his missing limb was, and slowly formed into a brand new arm, with the same coloring as before it got sliced off. There were no marks, no signs of injury, no nothing. There was just a new arm now, as if nothing had ever cut it off in the first place. If this mawile confused me before, then I was going borderline insane right now. I began to feel lightheaded for a second but I shook it off and crouched again. _I hope I'm not losing it… but is this real..? Did I just watch someone regenerate a torn off limb..? That can't be possible… but there's no way this isn't real… What is going on?_

As if nothing happened, the mawile went back to his empty stare, and approached me again, although decidedly slower this time. He was walking, as opposed to the all out rushes performed before. Vero quickly came over and stood beside me, also staring at the mawile with a rather intrigued gaze. She didn't seem nearly as baffled as I was though, just by her face I could tell.

"Do you have a plan by any chance?" She asked calmly, hardly sounding surprised from what we just witnessed at all.

"Not at all… I wasn't expecting regenerative limbs…" I focused my mind on the fact that we needed to find a way to win this battle, and away from the fact that I may as well have just watched a pokemon grow an arm. Beyond that even, what's with the blood he had? Or lack there of? Instead of blood, there was this… thick orange liquid that seemed to help him regenerate. I'm not too sure whether said liquid creeped me out more, or the lack of blood, or you know, growing back an arm. Needless to say, I was suitably not comfortable with the current situation by any means. It wasn't like I had much of a choice but to face the oncoming mawile though, so I stared forwards as he took heavy steps towards Vero and I.

I crouched and readied myself to fight however much I needed to, and Vero got into her stance from my left. _What can we do to him..? His body is tough enough to withstand whatever we can hit him with, and even if we disconnect his limbs, he can just regenerate. He's resistant to scratches and rarely reacts to pain, he's quick for a pokemon as sturdy as he is, and his attacks aren't exactly light. Not to mention, we can't have any of the locals get caught in the crossfire, and they'll be trying to attack us alongside the mawile. This situation isn't good…_

I gulped and took a step forward, planning a rush, but I was pretty quickly interrupted by a powerful force in the air, feeling almost like a gust of wind, but not quite. I couldn't physically feel a breeze of any kind, but I felt as if something was trying to push my body away. I slid across the ground a bit, but managed to stay on my paws, and it looked like Vero was having similar difficulties. I picked my head up and looked at the mawile, who had seemingly stopped approaching us He was now standing idly, staring forward blankly. _What in the…_

"I thought you were supposed to be a useful puppet, not take years to accomplish one task." I heard the same voice from earlier, this time not sounding as if it came from the sky, but right in front of us. Once I directed my eyes towards the noise, I looked upon a tall delphox, holding one forearm out against the mawile. "I guess you didn't do bad, but you don't know how to be aware of your surroundings. Why can't mind control just be a perfected art?" The delphox said with a long sigh.

 _Is this the one controlling him?_ I stared at the delphox, slowly beginning to glare. _She must be part of the Void then…_

After some a second of lecturing passed, she turned her head and looked at me, and then at Vero. "One of you is barely above the size of a child and the other didn't react to an arm being replaced, what an interesting pair." She put one of her forepaws to her cheek, holding an observant gaze. "Say, if I wasn't here to take one of you away, I might be able to do some research, maybe I can be a little late…" She mumbled to herself.

I was too stunned at the moment to say anything, filled with too many different thoughts to think of a proper sentence. This was the one who had current control over this mawile, who apparently has multiple masters, seeing as Rage seemed to have complete control over him last time, and now it's this delphox. This also implied that she was a part of the Void, it was hard to come to any other conclusion. Now for the last concerning bit: She was here to take one of us away. _The why isn't important… but our task here just got ten times harder…_

"More than ten times actually, it very way may be incalculable." It took me a second to process what she said next, and I had to roll over it in my mind a few times. _Did she just respond to my mind..?_

"Yes, I did. Did you think I was just going to let you have privacy in your mind? I have a job to do, and knowing exactly what you're thinking makes that job quite a bit easier." She yawned. "And to answer you, zoroark, the two of you both being dark types is irrelevant. It took me a while, but I learned how to bypass that crappy wall years ago. It was kinda painful though, breaking through the mind of a dark type involved shattering the psyche of thousands before I got it right." She sighed.

I gulped at that sentence, and Vero looked as if she had a similar reaction. "What do you mean you shattered their psyche?" She questioned nervously.

"Exactly what I said, they went crazy, started doing unorthodox things, refused to eat or sleep, all until they shrivel up and die. It's interesting to see a pokemon on the literal brink of insanity, and watch it totally mutilate them in the end, I have a lot of notes on the stages of someone breaking down." She looked up and closed her eyes for a second. "First they think nothing is wrong, just feel a little funny, maybe have some mood swings, nothing big. Then they start to rest less, thinking that said mood swings are a serious issue, even though they don't know the half of it. After that, their paranoia affects their appetite, preventing them from properly eating, and by that point, they will most likely have driven everyone who gives a damn about them away. After that, they very slowly deteriorate into an empty husk, until they take their final breath. Quite the process to observe, that's for sure." A shudder ran through my body as she finished speaking.

"What's wrong? It was interesting, so I observed. I'm not Luna, I don't get this sick arousal from watching pokemon get tortured and die, I just like to research them as the process goes on." She continued, as if it wasn't strange at all to observe a slowly dying pokemon. "How else will we be able to fix our problems if we don't make mistakes first? It's my job to fix said mistakes, and improve on the process. Slow and steady, a few thousand deaths, and now I've mastered it. Surely you know that mistakes are a part of life?" She tilted her head, looking at us as if we were suddenly a foreign species.

It weirded me out how much she was just… talking right now. She had a job to do, so why didn't she just try it? Instead, she was talking with us, similarly to how Grace did, but with less mental insanity. There's a bit there, but Grace was just… something else. _I'm not surprised at this point, everyone in the Void seems to have many, many screws loose._

"What do you mean? I'm perfectly sane you know. For the most part. Every now and then, I want to burn down a village for no apparent reason, but urges like that don't come often. That often." _Definitely insane…_

This idle talking wasn't going to last very long, I knew what it was leading up to. I wasn't going to tell myself that we're getting out of this without fighting anyone, whether it was the delphox herself or the mawile again, there's only so much words can do with a group like the Void, especially when you work for their rival organization. I just didn't know when she was going to strike, or the mawile, but I knew one of them was going to without a doubt. I needed to be ready fro when that happened, nothing would take my guard down at this point.

"Hey, you know who you are, stop thinking about it. It's not going to work, and if you don't get that out of your head in the next ten seconds, it's not going to be pretty." She looked to the sky and closed her eyes. Time slowly passed, ten seconds where I had no idea what to do, other than curiously think about who's thoughts she just read, along with hope that what she just said didn't imply she was killing anyone, which she very well could have, so I was on guard. I was ready to protect someone if I needed to, I just didn't want it to come to that.

Five seconds passed, but each of the ticks felt as if they were stretched to high degrees, with nothing but my nervous breathing accompanying the silence that everyone held. A large group who was just having a free for all battle among themselves was struck silent, by one sentence from this delphox. The air she held was suffocating, as if she had all of us held down, trembling and waiting for her to make a move. That's what she wanted, and that's exactly what she did, until she slowly pointed a forepaw, aimed in my direction, but off by a few inches to the left. Eight seconds had passed, and she had a fiery look in her eyes, one of disappointment in a way, one of contempt. Nine seconds, and the air stayed completely identical as it did previously. Dense, suffocating air, a lifted paw, and a pause.

Ten seconds.

A gust of wind went by my ear, something very hot skimming the side of it, giving my ear a bit of singed fur. Without turning my head, I heard what sounded like a small explosion, and an extreme wave of heat pour over me from behind. It was enough to make me sweat a little bit instantly. I took a second to realize what was happening, which I still wasn't too sure of at that very moment. Not until a piercing scream knocked on my eardrums. The scream came from directly behind me, to which I slowly turned my head, only to see two of the trees spread around this area catch fire, and to see a vigoroth, missing an arm and a leg, white fur charred to an unrecognizable point. There were large puddles of blood around him, also spreading to some of the other civils around them. Currently, there wasn't any blood leaking from the vigoroth though, just a sprawled pokemon, missing two limbs, going completely quiet after being burned alive in a second.

The silence that flooded the area was unchanging, all of us too shocked to do anything. I could hardly accept what I was looking at right now, a dead pokemon who was alive just seconds ago, now unrecognizable. The heated, burning smell of melted flesh coated the area, which gained a gag from everyone around, with the exception of me. Some gags were followed by sickness, especially from the younger looking pokemon here. Most of the adults got sick too, the only one who was mostly unaffected was me. I was already beyond tolerant to this, thanks to my excursions in Myriad. I stared at the lifeless, charred body for a few more seconds, and then the panic set in, the panic of all of the locals, one by one letting out loud, piercing screams, puddles of tears, nothing but sadness, and pain.

Eventually, my mind recognized what happened, and I slowly turned my body, looking right at the delphox, who looked exactly the same as before. She held an unimpressed, but at the same time, curious stare. "Why would you think attacking me is a good idea? All it would do is make my job harder, and cause you to lose your life. Some of you confuse me to the highest degree… and yet fascinate me at the same time." She lowered her paw and brought her eyes to the burning vegetation, beginning to spread everywhere. The heat in the area began to pick up more and more, but my body took it, not being able to focus on the intense heat, only on the psychic fox in front of me, whom I was now glaring at. I felt my rings slowly but surely flare up in anger. _She killed him… for a thought…_

"A thought that would make my life harder. With the death of that pokemon, I now got to see all of your reactions, and now know who I'm dealing with. You for example, seem to not care about looking at a body missing limbs, burned alive, and now deceased. I find that very interesting, it makes me wonder what you've seen in the past to warrant that." She took a step closer. "Tell me… Why do you think the Void wants you? Usually we just kill our targets, but you're a special case to Luna, why is that?" She questioned me. _Hell if I know…_

"I'm not-"

"So you don't even know? How curious… I might look into this when I get the chance. Then again, that chance will come pretty soon anyway, seeing as you're coming back to the Void with me." She started to casually walk towards me. I crouched down and glared at her angrily, my rings glowing more and more as she approached. I wasn't too pleased with what she just did, it really tipped me to the point where I didn't mind seriously injuring her if I got the chance. I suppose I felt that way about most of the Void at this point though. They were a group of monsters, and I would treat them as such, with no real reason for any alternative.

I was about to dash at her, but I felt my legs lock to the ground, unable to move. I thought I was losing it for a second when I tried to move and I couldn't, but my body was glowing a light purple, overlapping the glow from my rings and outlining my being with the dim shine. I struggled against the invisible force, unable to even twitch a digit on one of my paws. I couldn't even open my mouth to speak, I was suitibly locked down to the ground, locked from all movement, locked with the same fierce glare on my face. _Is she freezing me in place?_

"Yes, I am." She continued her slow walk over to me. "Though, I want to test something before you-" I saw Vero zip by me quickly, and attempt to jam her claw into the delphox intensely. She looked aggressive with the gesture, which quite possibly had killing intent, based on the scene of growing fire and the still-evident smell of a burning corpse. I didn't blame Vero if she did mean to impale her heart with a claw, but I couldn't get ot the point of certainty when it came to her intentions. Before Vero's claw made contact with the delphox, she casually stuck her paw out, and swiped Vero's attack away, before bringing her other paw to Vero's head, and clamping her mouth shut, looking as if the rest of her body froze right on contact, similar to mine.

"Didn't think any of you Ravens were the type to recklessly attack like that. You have no idea of my standing, so why risk a fast assault when anyone somewhat competent is trained to counter such actions?" She lifted her other paw to Vero's stomach. "Interesting Ravens… You all are." Without a second of hesitation, Vero flew from the grip of the delphox, launching into one of the many burning trees around, her back making an audible crack on impact, and her face contorted in pain. She couldn't make any noises, being that she was in the same frozen state as me, but I imagined that she would have had she been able to. _That looked bad… Please be okay…_

"I didn't kill her or anything, I don't have a reason to. I've already studied her species to the limit, being one of the more intriguing ones." She sighed. "Kind of a shame I don't have the chance to study you, I've never looked extensively into the DNA makeup of an umbreon, but I'm obligated to follow orders, so death isn't an option for you. Not yet at least." She kept walking towards me until she was about ten feet away. I wished I could at least warn the rest of the locals to run, but I couldn't speak at all, plus, they very well could have been in the same paralyzed state as Vero and I. Not like I was able to turn my head and check. _I don't want anyone else to die… I need to break out and do something…_

"Oh, you'll get your chance." The delphox rose one of her arms, and I felt my entire body slump to the ground harshly. I very quickly pounced up and locked my eyes onto the delphox.

"W-Why did you do that?" I asked, feeling fear seep into my mind, which I tried to push down. The fact that I was released scared me even more than before, as it meant she had a plan to do something, and I had no idea as to what. My legs began to shake a little bit, but I settled them down before it was visible.

"Simple testing, that's all. I'm curious." She let a smile creep onto her face, an evil one. "I want you to turn your head and look behind you." As off-putting as it was, I did as commanded and craned my neck slowly, seeing the hitmontop from before right behind me, also frozen in place, staring at me. I slowly turned back and looked at the delphox again, who had her paw raised towards me once more. _What… are you planning?_

"Simple, a test for my umbreon subject." She cleared her throat. "See that guy behind you? Well he attacked you earlier, thinking you were the threat here, not really taking the mawile without a properly functioning brain into account. Made your life a lot harder, and according to his thoughts, he was about to try and attack you again, not trusting you in the slightest. Not sure why when you actually saved him from severe injury, but I can't tell why these things go through the heads of others sometimes, it's a mixed bag for everyone." She shrugged. "I've given you your mobility back, but not his. With all of that in mind, consider your options here." Her paw began to heat up, moving at a hyper rate, as I could feel it from my position. _I see where this is going… What kind of experiments do you run..?_ I let my thoughts flow, wanting her to respond to them, without me having to speak up and stutter from fear.

"Simple ones really, ones that let me determine who I'm talking to, and give me a baseline for what kind of pokemon they are. For example, your current situation." She paused and smirked. "I'm about to launch an attack similar to the one I used to kill that other pokemon, but with more intensity than before. I'm not changing the course of the attack from where I have it aimed right now, right at you, and the wonderful pokemon following. I'm letting you know that the attack is coming, so you have plenty of time to react and dodge it, but I can't guarantee the safety of that civil behind you if you do. I see three current options for you: You can move out of the way, letting the one who tried to screw you over get hit with this, and most likely end up the same way as the first one. You can take the attack for him, and be the one to go into that condition, not knowing if you can take the attack or not, and making it much easier to take you away. Finally, you can try and find a way to stop me from launching this attack in the first place, bearing in mind that I can ready every single one of your thoughts, and that you can't overpower it."

"The question is… which one will you choose?"

I stood completely still, despite my limbs being freed, staring forward at the steadily growing flare in the paw of the delphox. A huge swarm of thoughts flooded my mind, and I had no idea which one to focus on. There was no way I was just going to let him die, I couldn't do that to anyone. Taking the attack… was extremely risky. I had no idea if I could survive the first one she shot off, let alone a stronger version, despite whatever stamina reserves I had, or however strong my defense was. A way to stop her attack… where would I even start? Could I cancel it with my own? Most likely not, maybe Naru could, but that was a definite no for me. Could I distract her somehow? I doubted it. Did she have some sort of weakness that caused her to not shoot off the attack? None that I could possibly know. That third option was seeming just as unlikely to pull through as the second one.

The heat heavily intensified in the air around me, even through the slowly spreading fire, I could feel the focused warmth within her paw. I didn't exactly have time, or at least, not much of it by any means, no longer to consider my options and choose the best one given the situation, no longer to consider new options and go through with those, not even the time to shout out and tell everyone who could move to run. All of our time was limited at this point, even without the prospect of this delphox, because the forest we were located it was slowly burning to a crisp, and I doubted that they could fit everyone in one of their rocky structures for safety. Then again, maybe they could, this place didn't have too many pokemon after all.

And just like that, my time was up.

The heat sourcing from the delphox quickly intensified, releasing a burst in my direction. Right after said burst came a ball made of flame, flying at me with a very high speed. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I watched the attack blasted through the air, burning away any vegetation it may have skimmed. I continued standing still, staring as the ball of supreme heat got closer and closer. My mind was blank, I didn't know what to do, there was too much to consider. The span of time it would take for it to reach me is probably around a second, a second to make a final decision on what to do. I used that second to brace myself, and my position didn't change from the moment it the attack left the delphox. I dug my claws into the ground, closing my eyes.

The part of my body that felt the initial impact was my chest, which was strong, and pushed me back a few feet, but I refused to get blown any further, not wanting to hand any part of this attack to the hitmontop behind me. The impact only lasted for a second, it wasn't too bad in terms of pain, and in a for about a tenth of the next second, I thought that was it, and she was bluffing. A tenth of a second isn't very long to think so positively.

My entire body ignited, engulfing in powerful flames that made me feel as if my skin was getting torn off. The torridity of the attack made me want to scream, but nothing came from my mouth, nothing but a hoarse, indecipherable noise. My fur singed, as did my skin, it was easy to feel the attack slowly eat away at my cells. My scarf was no longer around my neck, now in burnt tatters around me, some parts of it disintegrating completely. The feverish attack took ages to cool down, and through the whole time, I couldn't breath, I couldn't make a noise, I couldn't do anything but let myself suffer as it continued on. I stopped feeling the burning pain after a little bit though, replacing it was an uncomfortable numbness, followed by a soreness that disallowed me from moving as the attack fizzled out very slowly. My body was releasing a cloud of smoke, as the smell from before was replaced by the one I gave off. The flames surrounding my body gave out at a disgustingly slow pace, until all of them were gone.

I stood still, not wanting to look down at myself, I was most likely a mess of burns and patches of missing fur, as if I was being cooked alive. I stood completely still, on very shaky legs, taking in extremely heavy breaths, trying to make up for all of the air I lost in that attack. I was only able to get three gulps of air before I let out one, huge cough, another cloud of smoke exiting my body, along with my throat burning just as the rest of my being. I tried to talk, but nothing came out, only the same noise as earlier, followed by my body collapsing to the ground. The contact I made with the earth below me sent the worse of the burning back into me, like a shock wave traveling through my veins. I would have given some kind of verbal indication of pain if it was possible at the moment. Alternatively, I just laid on the ground, panting slowly, each bit of air burning me just as before.

"Hey, you're alive, how about that." The delphox who put me through this awful pain walked up to me, and lowered to her knees in front of my collapsed self. "I wasn't expecting that choice, I was ready for you to abandon the one who very well could have gotten you killed, but you didn't. Tell me, what motive did you have for preventing his demise in the first place?" She held a curious tone that I could barely focus on. _I can't… just let someone die…_

She paused before responding to my thoughts. "So interesting… I really wish I could study you, umbreon. I don't understand your thought patterns at all, and I would like to. Maybe someday I'll get the opportunity to better read you." She pet my head as I layed near lifeless on the ground. "For now though, my boss needs you, so I can't try to understand what you're on about. I'm sure I will someday though, assuming you're not dead."

I felt a new sensation wash over me in waves, an almost peaceful one compared to the burning earlier, which was still very evident. My body became sluggish on the ground and I felt my mind begin to go blank, unlike my rushing thoughts from before.

"Now sleep."

* * *

Hello Readers!

Finally, a new chapter after… a while. I apologize once more for the lack of updates, but I have a good reason, one that I'm not the most comfortable saying right here, but for those who are curious, I will let anyone know if they send a PM asking for it, so if you do want to know, I'll speak up!

Anywho though, I hope you guys like this one! This is actually the very first section of the story I finalized from my original draft, so in a way, it's like this is the only part I wanted to write from the very beginning, and I'm glad I got the chance to! Even if it took… 35 chapters, which I wasn't expecting, but you know, poor planning and such. :p

Giving my usual thanks to everyone who sends me lovely PMs with criticism or their opinions on the story, it means a ton to me! Really! Same with everyone who sends in a review with the same purpose! I love every little bit of it for sure! And thank you to my beta reader for not only cleaning my chapters up, but also listening to me ramble on and on about this and that, blah, blah, he knows what I'm talking about. :p (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	37. Seperation

**Naru**

Our scenery over time hasn't really changed at all, still the same green fields as normal around this area, which I didn't mind at all, it was just a constant pattern that was easily notable. Charm and Shiro were walking in front of me, wrapped up in their own little conversation, which brought a smile to my face. Shiro wasn't even stuttering, she was actually comfortable around him, which was really nice to see. As much as I loved watching over her, it was rather important that she had interaction with some other pokemon as well, interaction that she wasn't terrified of. Charm, being as polite as he was, made a good friend for for her, and made it so she wasn't scared to open her mouth around him. It was good to see her happily interacting with a friend, I loved just staring at the two while we made our way to the Nest, which was very close at this point.

I felt a gust of wind gently blow by all of us, and let my smile slowly fade as I explored the depths of my own mind. Kuro had been forced away from us for a different mission, and though I really shouldn't have any doubt in my mind that it will all work out and he'll come back perfectly okay as normal, I had this… horrible drop in my stomach right after he left. I don't know what it was, but I didn't like it, not one bit. I hated how it made me feel, it was as if I was nervous, or like I was dreading something from happening. I didn't know what I was dreading though, there wasn't anything that I should be.

I took a breath and shook my head a bunch, getting all of my random thoughts of what could go wrong away from me. Negativity wasn't good for the brain, if anyone knew how to stay positive through it all, it was me! So… why did I feel like this? I never, ever had a hard time keeping positive, so why suddenly couldn't I get all of the negative crap out of my head? I was supposed to be the one who's always happy! Not deal with whatever this is! _But… why?_

Ignoring the rest of my very, very confusing emotional lapse, the two children and I successfully made it to the outskirts of the Nest, which was in the process of integrating a new system to keep certain pokemon out, other than a barrier that seemed to not work very well. It was a simple system, nobody without either a Raven symbol or special permission was allowed passed the newly placed guards, who were also trained leaders. Along with them, a very small bracelet, one that was made of a flimsy glass and could be easily shattered against one's arm or leg. Once that glass shatters, the entirety of the Nest will be notified as soon as possible, and we now have various escape protocols for the north, south, east, and west ends of the Nest. It was safe to say that, assuming the Nest has another security breach, we'll have a good chance of making it out okay. All of us. So there was no need to overly worry about unwanted pokemon coming in and attempting to murder all of us in our sleep. Especially no scary gallade who had tried to kill both Shiro and I now… Thank Arceus…

Once we finally made it back to the Nest, and I explained the situation with Charm being here to the pidgeot guard on duty, and with Core's approval, the three of us got into the Nest without issue. As soon as we did, Charm's face lit up, taking note of the gargantuan place that was the Nest. His eyes shot all over the place, and I followed his gaze with amusement, letting my mouth curve into a smile. He looked absolutely enamoured, which got a chuckle from both Shiro and myself. Luckily, the small Vulpix knew her way around the Nest for the most part now, so she was confident enough to offer to show Charm around. I would have happily joined them, but I was called elsewhere via mental communication device thingy. Core was calling me to his office in the Nest, and by his office, I mean Myra's. They share one, which is interesting I suppose, but wasn't really on my mind much.

I let Shiro and Charm know about my presence being needed elsewhere and made my way over to the room to which I was summoned. The brief walk was relaxing, as was nearly all of my time within the Nest. Something about being in a gigantic place you know is safe… well… for the most part. Kai and Aven aside. More Aven then Kai, but the two of them both frightened me regardless, though not enough to keep me awake at night. In fact, the only time I was kept awake was a few nights after I had that really weird dream about Kuro a while back, but that didn't have anything to do with the two Void members within. There was no feasible way that was possible, so I took it as an odd occurrence that would most likely never be repeated in the future. _Hopefully it doesn't at least._

Once my short trip was completed, I tapped my special pattern of knocks on Myra's door, and moments later, it opened, Core standing before me. He gestured me into the room wordlessly, to which I nodded and walked inside to the somewhat familiar office. Myra was absent from her usual spot behind her desk, probably off on business elsewhere, likely of the Nest's leader. No idea what she did whenever she left,but she did it quite often, and always came back the day after with a package of some kind. I had no idea what was in any of the parcels that she brought back, nor was it my place to meddle, so I just didn't ever question it. I didn't expect Core to tell me had I asked him, so I didn't try it in the first place. _Probably just various supplies for all of the Ravens._

That wasn't important right now though. I mean, I just got called into Core's/Myra's office, that didn't happen often at all. Only after something big happened, like Kuro and I barely surviving against a high ranking Void admin. We were obviously going to be approached about something of that caliber, for informational purposes, and also just to verify our safety after dealing with someone like Grace. The latter was especially necessary, considering that Kuro had been injected with… something. Whatever Grace had within her. It very well could have been lethal after all. We were lucky to figure out that it wasn't, but better safe than sorry, regardless of what Grace herself said. _Not taking the chance of something happening to Kuro._

I placed myself upright, right in front of the desk that Core was now behind, also standing, which I thought was odd. No other time did I ever see Myra or Core stand behind their desk as such, they always sat calmly, a mellow demeanor, but Core looked overly serious, or stern. I felt the uneasinessiness that was ever so present in my body rise up, traveling from my stomach to an uncomfortable spot in my chest, almost bad enough to the point where I wanted to place one of my paws on it. It felt almost like pressure, something building up more and more as time went on, slow at first, but ever so steadily aggressing more and more. I tapped one of my front paws on the ground subtly, not wanting to seem disrespectful to Core, and not wanting to make it seem like I was in a rush. I couldn't deny how nervous I was though, and I further couldn't describe the pressure stil slowly traversing through my body, engulfing every single part of it, making it a little hard to breathe even.

More of my body began to tremble, extending from a single front paw to three of my legs, I was barely able to hide it. Core looked as if he was ready to speak, and I gulped a little, trying to calm down. I had to keep a cool head, and a clean mind, everything was going to be okay, there was no need to be so anxious. No… No need at all…

"We lost contact with Kuro."

* * *

 **Kuro**

All I could see was a dark space. I couldn't hear anything, nor could I smell anything. I could certainly feel my body scream at me though. Everything burned, from the bottom of my paw pads to the tips of my ears. Despite the evident sensation, my mind told me that attempting to move would be a good idea. I need to stop trusting the thoughts that come through to my head. Any attempt at working my muscles made the burning multiply in its severity, telling me that I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Though, in my attempts to move, I did notice a very tight, but dull pressure around each of my legs. I couldn't tell what was causing it though, nor did it matter to me at the moment. There were only two things I could think about at the moment. _What happened, and where am I..?_

I recalled my latest memories, despite how unpleasant they were. I was given a choice by a member of the Void, one I didn't foresee coming before it took place. I was given the choice to either sacrifice a pokemon so I could save myself a lot of pain, or take that pain myself. The option I chose was the only real option to me, and I don't regret it, even if I had much doubt in my mind whether I was okay at the moment or not. Regardless though, I was sure that I made the correct decision, given the rather sensitive situation. I was shockingly calm at the moment, which was both a good thing, and scared me at the same time. LIke… I should have been terrified, but I wasn't. As odd as that was to me, I decided that it was more of a positive than a negative and stopped thinking about it.

I wished that my eyes could pick something up and give me some kind of rough idea as to where exactly I was. I couldn't investigate very easily due to my body's current condition, preventing me from moving well, assuming I was trying to at all. Another factor I noticed was the lack of my scarf and bag, which made sense. I didn't even have my bag before I took an attack that made me mentally cringe, and said attack most definitely burnt my scarf to bits. The accessory was fireproof, yes, but everything has a limit, and I'm fairly certain that the heat I was hit with far exceeded said limit of a piece of fabric. Part of me was ever so slightly saddened at the loss of the scarf, even if it wasn't anything super special, it marked the day I finally walked out of my rut, so it was special to me in some small way. I wouldn't lose sleep over it, but it was on my mind, along with thinking about where I could be.

I felt an uncomfortable feeling in my throat, and then let out a large cough, releasing an intense burning sensation from the top of my chest, up throughout my upper body. The pain made me wince and grit my teeth. Part of me wanted to try talking, saying something to possibly attract some kind of attention, but the violent reaction in my throat from a cough made me think otherwise just as soon as I considered the option in the first place. Talking was probably not going to be easy in the slightest, let alone yelling to alert anyone of my consciousness, but I needed to make sure that I wasn't just being paranoid about it all. I took in a small breath, which also sent a wave of uncomfortable heat inside of my mouth, but I shook it off. I slowly separated my teeth, and tried to get my vocal cords to work.

"I-"

I couldn't even get through a letter, before I felt the heat from before return with a vengeance. Not only that, but it stimulated a coughing fit, each one intensifying the extreme burning sensation that was ever so present before. I tried to dig my claws into the surface I was connected to, and found it rather easy, as whatever my paws were set on, it was soft, despite having firm stability at the same time. I felt very small particles of something settle themselves in the fur at the bottom of my legs, and the sensation was cold, which I very much welcomed, given the rest of my body's heat intake. After my coughing settled, and I took a second to recover from the scalding, I fidgeted with my digits a little bit, feeling whatever I had dug my claw into. I had felt it many, many times before. It wasn't hard to determine what it was, and I welcomed the comfort that came with this familiar sensation. I had many questions that continued to raise after I was done basking in the opposite of heat that was provided to me from the dirt below me. The biggest one still remained though. _Where am I..? Where could I possibly be..? Was I taken here..? Or am I still in the same area..? Or…_

 _Quit asking yourself so many questions. It's not hard to figure out if you focus._

A voice rang through my head, one that took me just a second to place. Not only was the voice recognizable, but there was only one pokemon I've met that could mentally communicate with me without the usage of the device in my bag. _Why… Why are you talking to me?_ I waited a second for a response.

 _As I said, it's not hard to figure out. You think I put you on the brink of death and just left you laying there? Nonsense. Though, that would make for an interesting experiment, seeing if you would manage to survive in the company of many pokemon who wouldn't be opposed to the thought of you biting the dust right in front of them._ The tone of her voice in my head had an inquisitive attitude.

 _Where am I..?_ I mentally asked, desperate for an answer. As soon as I was contacted by this pokemon though, I had more of an idea, and I didn't like it.

 _Oh come on now, how can you not know? There's only one place you would be taken after the events that occured recently._ I tried to gulp, but all I managed to do was burn my throat that much more. _You're in possession of the Void._

Part of my mind knew that had to be the case, but I didn't focus on that part, afraid of it being true. Sadly, running away from what you fear never seems to work. Never has, and doesn't look like it ever will. Not that I didn't expect that. Something didn't really add up here though. That would be the pitch black darkness that surrounded me in this room. I had been in the presence of the Void before, and as far as I know, most of their rooms had some visibility present, thanks to me being a dark type and all. Here though, I actually couldn't see a thing, as if there was not a shred of light, not a crack for me to feed off of and get something within my vision. There was no way I was in the same place as before, so what did that mean?

 _I'm surprised you're not mentally panicking right now, yet another thing that makes you quite interesting. I wonder what else you may do if tested?_ I wish I could hear a tone in her thoughts, so I knew if she was ever being sarcastic or not.

 _I'm not in the Void's airship, am I?_ I placed the thought in my head, waiting for it to be read, and not fully expecting an answer. It was a bit of a revealing one to adhere to on the side of the Void, but then again, they never really cared much for their security.

 _Keen eye. You're not, however, we still have full control over you. We are expanding, from one flying vehicle to a grounded area for our higher ups to assemble. That's where you're located right now._ I processed what she communicated to me.

 _Only the higher ups?_

 _Not exclusively, but the majority located here._ I once more, thought about her mental words.

 _Which would mean… you're a higher up?_

 _Correct. Fairly high up on the food chain here, but not quite at the top. Four others outrank me as of now, but as for the rest, I have full command over them._ She was outranked by four others… that's it. To think, at the time, I thought I could do something to stop her back at that small civilization. If Grace was any example, there was no way I was able to do a thing to anyone in the higher divisions of the Void. Arceus, I could barely scratch Kai in a battle, and he hasn't ever been mentioned as a Void member in high command.

 _What's the point of having more than one location like this? What's the point of splitting your numbers like that?_ I couldn't help myself from prodding for more information.

 _I barely know. It was the boss' idea, not mine. She doesn't always think straight. I think it's much more efficient for us to all keep our original moving location that always held our presence, but whatever. Doesn't affect me or my research at all._ Figures that Luna is the one making pointless decisions, based on what I know, she has very little reason behind anything she does.

 _You keep mentioning your studies and research, are you a scientist of sorts?_

 _I'm a very curious soul who likes to learn new things. The best way to accomplish this is through researching things I know nothing about, and learn about each and every one of them. For instance, learning about an umbreon who decided that it would be better idea to take a clearly deadly attack instead of simply walking out of the way. Or about you Ravens as a whole, you all intrigue me in some way shape or form, so I want to study you._ I wasn't expecting the lengthy answer, but I didn't complain.

 _Why am I here..?_

 _No clue. Someone else needs you, that being the boss. For what, I have no idea, she hasn't shared that with anyone besides her second to my knowledge. They're going to use you for whatever they need to._ I painfully gulped.

I couldn't really think of anything else to ask, nothing that had a chance of being answered. Plus, after she told me I was to be used for something, I couldn't help but submit to the fear within my mind multiplying over and over. I had minor flashbacks to a day long ago, where I was "used," and above all else, I didn't want that to happen again. You could call that my biggest fear, and it was one I hated to acknowledge, yet still evident in my head.

 _Before they get to you, a visitor from the Void wants to have a meeting with you. One that seems to have some kind of vendetta against you for whatever reason._ I imagined that I had some kind of confused look on my face, despite not knowing for sure.

 _Who has a vendetta against me..?_ I unconsciously wondered.

Instead of receiving another mental response, I heard the harsh sound of metal clanking against more metal, accompanied by scratches and various ear-piercing sounds. It made my ears fold, which subsequently caused the burning sensation on my body to spread around my head area, prompting a small wince.

Not long after, an extremely bright line of white appeared to my left, which made my head jerk away from it, and caused my eyes to close instantaneously. The light burned my eyes, as if I needed anything else to burn right now. The burning soon transformed into a dull ache, which I knew wasn't going to go away unless I made an effort to remove it. Blink by blink, I opened and closed my eyes over and over, keeping them open for a fraction of a second longer every time, ever so slowly adjusting my eyes from watering. My vision soon morphed into a blurry mess, but it was better than the pitch blackness that was portrayed beforehand. The warped vision very slowly changed once more, this time into a dull room, with a dirt ground, traced with small amounts of grass throughout the whole thing. I brought my eyes higher, finding the walls of this area to be made of a hard-looking stone, giving me a few familiar vibes. The simple movement of my head caused more sparks of heat to burn my body, but I was more or less getting used to them.

I wanted to breathe heavily, to get more oxygen in my system, but I didn't want to further damage my throat, so I kept my breathing even as best as I could. I wanted to observe more of my surroundings, namely the influence of the light, but that mass slowly retained back into a thin line. It made it easier on my eyes, but prevented me from seeing anything outside of these rocky walls and the dirt ground, which still felt admittedly pleasant to my paws. _What was that about..?_ It didn't take long for my thoughts to be answered.

I heard a chuckle, a small laugh, come from just out of my sight. I had heard what was nearly the exact same noise before, and it took me a second to place it. It was difficult for two reasons, one being that I had only heard this on two occasions, and another being that it didn't make sense for that pokemon to be here of all places. None whatsoever. Not within the Void, and less in a place that was mainly for their higher tiers. Still curious though, I slowly turned my head to the left, every small movement accompanied by the feeling of being scalded.

To my side, I wasn't expecting to see a hitmonchan. Never had I seen one in the Void, and the only one I had seen was nowhere near having a place here. I thought back to a previous mental reception though, and a possibility rose in my mind, once I thought back to one thought that was passed. _Someone who has a vendetta against me..? There's no way that guy straight up joined the Void because he was humiliated, right?_

"Lookie, lookie here." He put on a disgusting smirk, and I recognized the voice all too well. It was the same one, the same hitmonchan as before. The same one that bullied Naru when she was younger, the same one who tried to fight me and embarrassed himself completely and utterly. "There's something so satisfying about seeing you helpless and alone right in front of me, chained up and stuck, useless." _Chained up and stuck..?_

I slowly and painfully looked down at my paws, back to where I felt a light pressure of sorts, and I soon discovered the source. There were a few white-colored cylindrical shapes tightly grasping the lower parts of my legs, connecting to a blue chain that was dug into the ground thoroughly, allowing me a bit of leeway to move, but it wasn't like I could use it. My muscles were still out of the question for usage, not unless I wanted to make it even harder for me to move later on.

One of my least favorite pokemon on the planet walked in front of me, and crouched to be at my eye-level. He still had the same insulting expression on his face, which made me want to growl at him. He looked just as I saw him last, bringing up more memories I would rather not look back on. I couldn't think of him without accompanying it with Naru feeling miserable, so needless to say, I tried to keep him as far away from my head as possible. "Still think I can't do anything to you? Still think you're above me?" His smile grew creepily, but I still wasn't intimidated. _He's… actually with the Void now? He's more of an idiot than I thought…_

I really wanted to say something to him, but I couldn't, not without looking even more lowly than I already did at the moment. I wanted to push myself off of the ground, but at the same time, didn't want to risk failing, and give this guy the satisfaction of seeing me in that kind of state. I had many questions for him that I wanted answered, but it didn't look like I was going to get the chance to ask, uness that delphox came back to translate my thoughts. "Do you still think I'm someone to be tossed aside, to be ignored?" _Yes, I do._ "The pokemon here have given me something very special, something I want to use on you!"

Without warning, the hitmonchan plunged his fist into my head, which made my ears ring, and wildly slid me back, causing the chains to roughly tug on my body, combining my burning from earlier with an extreme ache in my head. I bit my lip hard, adding to my pain even more, but it was better than letting him see me scream, which I was very tempted to do after the impact. I instinctively curled up a bit, refusing to make a sound of any kind. _Why did that… hurt so much coming from him..?_

I slowly turned my head up, every movement worsening my now evident headache, only to see the same guy, laughing in hysterics. "This is great! You're helpless!" He calmed his laughing down a little. "You can't even speak, can you? You can't do anything at all! You're useless!" I wanted to get up and talk back to him, I really did, but I was still unable to. I couldn't make a noise, I couldn't really move, I really was useless.

"This is priceless! I want to hurt you more, but I was ordered not to, it's so hard to hold back!" _He was ordered not to..? Why..?_ I was only able to glare at him as he had a field day, watching me in pain. As humiliating as it was, so long as I didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me lose it, I didn't care. My mind was solely on the topic of thinking of a method to get away. I would need to heal at least a little, but if pokemon like him continued to come in and perform acts like this, that would be difficult.

"Your name is Kuro, right? That's what I heard the pathetic glaceon call you." He spoke through his amusement, and through my angered glare. "As soon as you can talk, I want to hear you tell me how you feel, how it feels to be useless, to not be able to do a thing, to dread what's to come while you're stuck here, knowing there's others like me who are ready to bring you pain, I want to know all of it!" _Like I would ever tell you._

"Hey, why don't I give you even more to think about?" He leaned closer to me, right in my face, putting his hand over my head. "You know where I'm going right after this? Right to your home, in order to have fun with your partner." In one sentence, he managed to make my blood boil twice as much as before. _I swear…_

"I can't wait to wrap my hands around her throat until she can't take it anymore, I'll make sure she suffers as much as possible before she dies." My rings swiftly lit up. "And who knows? Maybe I'll even take her back here and let you watch! I've never killed anyone before, It'll be amazing for her to be my first kill! And to work on torturing you as well!" I started to put pressure on my paws, and let myself growl. "I saw before that you and her were a lot stronger than me, but that's not the case anymore thanks to my gifts! I'll have no problem cracking her spine! And less so ebbing her life away! I can't wa-"

I lunged forward and harshly latched my jaw onto his arm, biting into it as much as I Could, getting a screech in response from him. I tasted his blood flow into my mouth, and I honestly couldn't care about the iron-like taste, or the fact that the sudden movement on my part made my body double in scalding heat. I felt my fangs contact his bone, and I kept increasing my force, more and more, slowly breaking through his flesh, listening to his screaming. I was struck in the head once more, which caused me to fly back again, but I didn't detach myself, I took a large chunk of his flesh with me.

After I slid across the dirt ground again, feeling my pain intensify, I spit out the portion of his arm that I ripped off, and also released the blood I had in my mouth into a small puddle right beside me. I took a few heavy breaths, still listening to the painful grunts and groans coming from the hitmonchan, which I didn't hate hearing. I felt my throat burn up immensely, but I could care less at this point. I took one more breath, and locked my eyes on him again, grasping his arm, which was quickly pouring crimson liquid.

"I-I swear... " My voice was barely decipherable, it was scratchy, hoarse, and quiet. "I-If you even… t-touch her… I-I'll make… s-sure you regret it…" I felt my body slump down again, and I closed my eyes.

The movements I made drained me, due to their swift and sudden nature. The pain in my body flooded me, and I slowly lost consciousness.

* * *

Hello Readers!

I hope all of you are well! Another rather slow update, but the chapter is out regardless, so that's good! I'll try my best to keep up with some consistency in the future! I promise!

Also, to the person who left a review saying I need to see a therapist, I totally agree! My mind is so far gone it's scary! But that's who I am!

I also want to suggest something that a lot of other writers do, but hey, I've never been the most creative. :p If anyone wants to send in some questions, via review or PM, about any of the characters or myself, I'll put it somewhere in the chapter that goes up! Probably in the author's note, or at the very beginning, either way, I'll put them in! (You may remain anonymous if you so desire)

Thanks you to everyone who sends me a message or leaves a review, they all mean a ton to me and I love reading them! Even ones saying I need to see a therapist! Thank you to my beta reader for cleaning up my chapters so they're not so typo heavy! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	38. Revisiting Nightmares

**Vero**

I was still frozen in place, physically at least, my mind was still fully functional, thank Arceus. I could do anything that didn't involve moving my body, which was more than most others could, but still not much. Any little bit counts though, and it certainly did here… partially…

I had witnessed something I would rather blank from my mind, but I needed to think about it regardless. Who else was going to let others know? I had to let others know that I just saw Kuro nearly get incinerated and then taken away by a psycho-looking delphox who seemed to be intrigued by everything. I replayed the scene in my head a few times, and shivered repeatedly. The aftermath of that attack… Kuro did not look… good…

About ninety percent of his fur was visibly charred, and the parts that weren't in that state were straight up missing fur, replaced by intense burn marks. It was pretty gruesome… He is not in a good state… and to think that I still can't even move a muscle… _Talk about being useless…_

Whatever the hell that delphox did froze everyone here, and I thought it would wear off after she left, maybe she would get out of range or something, but that was clearly not the case, seeing as she was now who knows where, and I was still prevented all motion. A huge part of me was just frustrated at the fact that I couldn't move, other parts of me were worried about Kuro's safety, other's were worried about what's going to happen when we can indeed move again and the locals possibly try and attack me, there was a ton to think about, and I couldn't even let out a frustrated sigh. _How are we all even breathing when we're stuck like this..?_

I was about to try something stupid, but I felt an unbelievable amount of weight fall over my whole body, which turned into an intense pressure, ending with me falling to the ground. I coughed a few times, caught off guard by the fact that my body actually changed positions. I very swiftly pushed myself up and awkwardly fiddled with my forepaws, making sure I actually had control, which I was glad to figure out was indeed the case. As soon as I confirmed it through, the nausea hit, and I fell to my knees once more.

Through my awful stomach sensation, I looked up and saw all of the locals here regain their movement in a similar manner as I did, most of them immediately going to where the corpse of one of their friends was. Or what they thought was a corpse.

I closed my eyes and focused, gagging a bit, but making sure that I didn't submit quite yet. The burnt, bloody corpse slowly ebbed away, with nothing replacing it other than a perfectly healthy vigoroth, who looked around cluelessly. After I opened my eyes again and verified that I didn't screw up, I smiled to myself, and immediately turned around and vomited on the ground. _Ugh… Not used to using them… especially for that long…_

I finished releasing not so pleasant things from my stomach, and wiped a bit of sweat off of my head. The fur all over my body felt drenched, it seems like I was way more nervous than I thought at first. I had been sweating buckets the whole time, other than when we were all frozen. Not like any of that nervousness left me though, I was still as uneasy as could be as I turned my body, facing the rest of the locals, happy and relieved to see that their companion was okay. I had the same feelings to a very small extent, that being because I had no idea where Kuro was taken, and alternatively, what all of these locals were about to try and do. I was drained for the most part, so running wouldn't be the best idea.

All of their eyes soon turned to me after they were satisfied with their friend being okay, and anxiety quickly rose from within me. I gulped, not sure what was about to happen. I mean, I could barely stand at the moment, and I was a 'demon' to them, so what was going to stop them from just… kind of killing me? _Nothing is stopping them… isn't there?_

A few of them, primely the vigoroth and a hitmontop walked over to me, and stood right before my body. I resisted glaring at the hitmontop who made our job decidedly harder, not wanting to make the situation any worse than it already was. An awkward silence passed between us, and I was thoroughly expecting to get kicked in the face. _Please have some decency…_

"Why are two demons here?" The hitmontop asked sternly, as if nothing had just happened. I nearly lost it just from that first question, just from the fact that one of us 'demons' is the reason he's freaking alive. I barely managed to keep my cool, and composed myself to answer.

"We're here to help you, nothing more. We aren't a threat." I responded. _That should have been obvious…_

The two glanced at one another and then back at me. "All demons are. All demons and all angels. You only want to manipulate and hurt us." Now that nearly made me go berserk.

I tried to suppress myself again, but didn't do nearly as good of a job. "We what? Want to manipulate and hurt you? We literally just saved two of you from death! At our own expense!" I growled a bit before trying to calm down. "Why are you trying so hard to antagonize us? We defended you, and you still say things like that!?" I did not do a good job at calming down.

"You didn't do anything but fight the angel, the other demon is the one who took the hit, and it was to gain trust. That's all." _I hate this guy sooooooo much._

"How do you think he's alive?" I pointed to the vigoroth. "You saw it all, you smelt the burning flesh, tell me how you think he's alive." The hitmontop seemed taken aback by my aggression, but only for a second.

"The delphox was only warning us, in order to cause you demons to leave." His voice sounded decidedly less confident, despite still being stern. I still could barely keep calm.

"Warning? She warned us? She literally almost burned my friend alive in front of all of you! If she wanted us gone, she would have just killed us and left!" I shouted back.

"Then how is he alive if it wasn't at the will of them?"

"I hid him with an illusion! All of that was fake! It could have happened, but it was prevented!" I progressively got louder. "All we've done here is help you lot, so some appreciation instead of baseless ridicule would be lovely!" I took a breath. _I need to chill out.._ "Especially my friend that was here, who knows where he is now? He was well aware that attack would put him out of commission, and he took it anyway, in order to make sure you didn't die from it." My voice lowered, and I calmed down a bit.

Again, the two standing in front of me looked surprised, as if they didn't expect me to speak out like that, and I even got a few glances from the rest of the locals, grouped up a decent distance behind them, near the cave-like prison structure. "Explain more then, why did they attack you in the first place? The mawile and then the delphox?"

"They're a part of an organization that commits many evil deeds, and well, we're with their rival. We had word that they would be near this area, so the two of us were going to make sure nothing bad happened here. It looks like… they sent way more than we could handle though. The point is, we were here to stop them from hurting you, that's all. Neither of us have any ill intentions with the locals here, and I think that's evident now." I took a breath after my explanation, hoping that one of these two would have the decency to at least consider our position. It's all I could hope for at the moment, being that I was too exhausted to fight back or run if they tried anything.

The hitmontop seemed to contemplate in his mind, which was mirrored by the vigoroth next to him. _Did I finally get some sense into their heads..?_ After a second or two, they turned to me once more. "This goes against almost everything we know. You shouldn't want to help us at all." The vigoroth spoke this time.

"Everything you know..?" I questioned, tilting my head. "Who taught you as such?" _now i'm curious._

"Our lord." _Lord..?_ "He taught us everything we know, and we follow his will." My face went from one of confusion to that of dumbfounded.

I was about to ask the obvious question, but it seemed like it wasn't necessary, as a new presence joined the three of us. Behind the other two, towering over them, was a haxorus, looking down at both of them as well as me, holding a calm expression to contrast its bulky physique. As soon as the hitmontop and vigoroth respectively noticed them, they both turned around completely and bowed down, getting into a similar position that I happen to be holding because of my exhaustion. It only took my mind a fraction of a second to put together who this most likely was, and as soon as I managed, I pushed myself off of the ground and stood before them, our size difference being quite evident. My legs felt weak, and my body just a bit heavy, but I stood regardless, looking at the now arrived pokemon.

There was an incredibly awkward pause between us, as they took a bit before wanting to speak, and I felt admittedly intimidated, being that I couldn't fight if I needed to at the moment. Part of me was glad that the other two didn't seem as if they were fixing to attack me any more, and the other part of me was scared that they were about to be commanded to do so. I tried to hide my inner thoughts, waiting for words to be spoken. "Hello there." A polite tone entered my ears, followed by the haxorus bowing his head down a bit. "Sorry to have troubled you with our ideologies, thank you for saving one of us. You have my appreciation."

I felt confused and conflicted, more so than prior. _Why is he giving me respect..? Not that I'll complain._ I only felt compelled to ask one thing, and that I did. "Are you their 'Lord..?'"

A second passed, and the haxorus rose their head once more with a small nod. "I am. These are my children, all of which hold my teachings." He spoke again, politely. "You saved one of us, may I ask your name? As well as the name of your friend?" _I am beyond baffled…_

I contemplated my response for a quick second. "My name is Vero, I was sent here to help you all. My associate's name is Kuro." I attempted to copy his tone, not wanting to seem rude, still unable to fight if I needed to.

"Thank you both, for your help. My name is Apex, and the ones who live here are my children. You have our sincerest gratitude, and I send my best wishes for your friend, Kuro, as well as yourself." He bowed his head once more.

As polite as he was at the moment, I felt rather creeped out by him. I wanted to ask more questions, but I didn't know if it was worth the risk. I mean, his 'Children' didn't care much about what Kuro and I had to say earlier, so why was the one who implemented all of this so much more willing? It scared me to continue the conversation, but who says that me leaving wouldn't just end with being chased? There was too much to think about and consider for me to make a safe decision, they both had their risks, and I wasn't able to avoid all of it. "As sudden as this is, what exactly are your teachings..?"

He didn't answer immediately, instead, he looked down upon me and observed. His presence was heavy, I couldn't really describe why, but I felt so small in front of him, figuratively and literally. "You are a curious one I see, what an admirable trait." He closed his eyes and took a breath. "We are a small family, an unchanging family, and we don't welcome those who are outside with open arms. All of those who are outside only aim to dismember us, and tear us away from one another, end our family. We can't let let that happen, our only concern is to stay stable, to stay as one, and treat others as if they're enemies. All of the outside contains nothing but adversity."

My mind was blank for the most part after Apex finished speaking. I tried to decipher what exactly he meant, but none of it directly answered my question. All it did was make me think that he had a certain way with his words, a charismatic tone and voice. An overall attitude that rubbed me the wrong way. None of what he said stuck with me, while thinking about his voice, I couldn't see any of this being a family. I immediately saw it as a blind crowd, and this guy is at the helm. I very well could be wrong though, these were just my initial thoughts after he explained himself a little. He missed some very important details though. "What part of that causes the disdain towards dark and fairy types? Or as you call them, angels and demons?" That's what I really wanted answered.

"Those are simply names my children conceived. Pokemon of types dark and fairy aren't present within our family, any of those that have attempted to associate themselves with us, they have tried to seperate us. Over time, we saw that pattern, and we treated them as hostile, as most would seem. I see now that there are exceptions to that ideology, those being you and your companion. You helped us, as opposed to attacking us, which proves that my teachings may not consistent in all areas." I noticed something off about Apex, but I didn't do anything about it. "My children and I will exempt the two of you from our sight of hostility, you deserve it."

I processed every bit of what Apex said as he talked. "Don't you think that your ideology is unreasonable though?" I may have been pushing it, but I was willing to press my luck. "Living in isolation like this doesn't seem to adhere to your teachings, everyone who willingly joined under you needs to have been an 'outsider' at one point or another."

Apex looked down at me, and I once more, caught something. "Not at all, we are well within reason, the whole family. All of us are here, willingly living with one another, as a family." _That's all I'm willing to pry from him._

I gave Apex a simple nod. "Thank you for answering my questions, I have important business to attend to, so I think I'll be on my way." _I just want to get out of here…_

"I understand, thank you once more, for your help." He lowered his head once more, and without waiting any longer, I turned around and walked away, with two things on my mind.

Contacting Core and informing him of the situation.

The periodic twitching that Apex had.

* * *

 **Kuro**

Time was passing.

I laid down, stuck to the dirt, my restraints much tighter, now even restricting me from moving an inch, thanks to a report of an 'issue.' My whole body burned less, but ached where the burning left. I didn't get hit by something that I was just going to heal from overnight, I was hit with something that was going to take its toll on me. I would occasionally twitch, causing me to make sure that I didn't forget that my being was recovering. The entire time, I was locked in my thoughts, sparratically thinking about what could be happening outside of where I was stuck.

I thought about how Vero was faring, most likely frozen with a bunch of pokemon who may or may not be hostile towards her. _Hopefully she'll make it out okay… I have no idea what ends those pokemon will go to._

My mind then traveled to how Naru, Shiro, and Charm were doing, if they made it back to the Nest safely, if all of them are doing well, if Charm is okay with being in such a new environment. _If they know that I'm stuck here, and not able to come back to them…_

I coughed, causing my throat to burn up again, which I was starting to get used to, so much so that I just didn't care about it. My whole body was starting to adapt to the feeling of smoldering heat, which I didn't know if I should view as a positive or a negative. During my time here, after my least favorite pokemon on the planet paid me a visit, I've been alone, occasionally being approached by someone hiding their identity, to force feed me. I had no idea what they would give me, but it kept me sedated for unhealthy amounts of time. It wasn't normal food for sure, and it told me that the Void didn't want me to starve to death, so they did actually need me for something I was still ignorant to.

As curious as I was for the purpose, I was just as worried about what they were going to do in order to accomplish said purpose. I couldn't do a thing to resist to any action placed upon me, so I was at the will of the Void, the one body I don't want to be controlled by. They had the resources to make me into something that wasn't a pokemon, to hurt me, to torture me, they could do anything. Not knowing what exactly they had planned was eating me from the inside out though. I hadn't been this afraid in a very long time.

My fear multiplied over a second, as I heard the familiar deafening sound of a door opening, prompting the same reaction I had every time it happened, jerking my head away and shutting my eyes tightly. I never got a better look around the room I was in, All I saw was the ground, and the rocky walls, I never had the chance to investigate anything else. Not that it really mattered in the end, my situation wouldn't change based on the room I was in, it wasn't that simple. This would end up the same way as always,I was going to be fed something I wasn't familiar with, and then left alone for another indiscernible amount of time.

Much to my partial dismay, I heard the doors soon close as soon as they opened, and nothing was forced into my mouth this time. I was confused, but felt the presence of someone close to me, very close to me. I still couldn't see though, the only thing within my vision was an empty, black space, but I felt their breath. It was uncomfortably warm, it made my whole body uneasy, as did the presence in the first place. It creeped me out that much more because of my positioning, chained to the ground, on my back, meaning whoever this was had to be leaning so closely over me to the point of practically laying on me. I caught myself shivering a bit, unable to think cohesively, due to fear.

A paw ever so gently grazed my face, and my whole body, my entire mind froze. All it took was a second for everything to stop in my head.

"Oh Kuro~"

A voice rang through the room, one that nearly gave me a panic attack. One that I've heard many times in my head, over and over. One that I heard a long time ago, from nearly the same position. My heart stopped, and I felt beads of sweat begin to form on my body. My chest started to tighten, and I had a hard time breathing. My body started to involuntarily shake, and a dim light showed itself, right before my head, coming from a ring located on the umbreon leaning over me. One that I recognized clear as day.

"Being so close to you again excites me more than you know~" My breathing became harder and harder to take place. "Aw, what's the matter? You were better last time, back on the ship."

I barely heard anything she said. My mind was flooding, overflowing with memories I wished to hold down forever. It was clear that I wouldn't be able to hold them back forever, but all of them were released at once, all with the voice of this umbreon, the voice of the pokemon I feared above anyone else. She sent my senses into a state of stasis, where they were numb, where I couldn't will myself to speak up at all, or even move. Even my trembling stopped, I was completely and utterly frozen.

"Are you going to say anything? Or will I do all of the talking?" I gulped hard and began shaking again without chance of help. "You're going to need to speak eventually, but why don't we work up to that? First, I'll do some talking for you, I'm sure you have questions after all." My mind, body, and emotions were mute.

"The biggest question on your mind is probably why you're here, and why you're not dead. Believe me, I would kill you in a heartbeat after a few hours in torture, but I need some information out of you. Maybe after you give it to me, I'll let you go back to your little friends, your beloved glaceon." My mind was only able to pick up bits and pieces of what she said. I understood only that she needed information from me, and then she would let me go back to the Nest, where I belonged. Back with Naru.

"If you cooperate well, who knows? Maybe you won't need to suffer at all, and perhaps you can be out of here as soon as you give it up, as soon as you talk, we can personally deliver you back to the ones you want to be close to. Understand?" Staring into the barely visible red irises in front of me, I gave a small nod. I wasn't thinking straight at the moment, I couldn't, I was too scared.

"Good boy, all you need to do is explain, and you'll be out of here." My body's shaking picked up more. I was no longer frozen, which could have been considered a small improvement, though nothing more.

"Your parents, great pokemon, weren't they? They were worthy of respect, and they obtained it for sure. From one another and from many around them, they were loved and looked up to. I remember their last day on this planet, such a sad day, and equally as invigorating." _Invigorating..?_ My mind hung on that word. She obviously wouldn't be bothered by my parents being gone, she was one of the three who came specifically to kill them. "They explored, they helped, they did so much for everyone, what accomplished pokemon. I'm not going to ask you for your opinion on them or anything, something much more material." _Material..?_

I wanted to dig into my mind and think about what she was talking about, but being that I was still quite literally terrified out of my mind, that wasn't an option. I couldn't help but take note of the way Luna talked though. I hated it. It was easy to tell why she chose her words the way she did, and why her voice had a mellow tone. "Beyond all of their individual strengths and weaknesses, those two, together, they were practically perfect, wouldn't you say? They made up for one another's flaws, and were of one mind. The were always on the same page, no matter what. They were always together, they looked out for one another, they were a single soul." I felt my rings start to glow, lighting up the room a bit more, much to my dismay, as I wasn't happy with the prospect of staring at Luna point blank.

"What's the matter? Getting emotional?" she put on a disgusting smirk and my shakling went from that of only fear, to that of fear and anger. Her just sitting here and talking about them, talking about the ones who made and nurtured me so casually, when she may as well have been the one to end them both, I hated it. It irked me, gave me discomfort, and I despised the idea of it. I couldn't stand her, period. "I won't go for much longer, don't worry dear Kuro. As I said, all I want is one small piece of information. That's the only thing. Then you're off to all of the new friends you made." I had no idea how to take her words.

"Both of your parents, while they worked at the nest, but not on the day they died, had a piece of apparel on, more specifically, a deep blue scarf, and a shining green gem. Two gorgeous accessories if I do say, suited the two of them just fine." She paused, smiling at me with the same exact expression as earlier. "Tell me, where have those accessories gone to?"

I took some time, Luna wasn't speaking, awaiting an answer from me. Instead of my mind being frozen, it bounced from one place to the next faster than I could describe. Initially, I wondered why, of all things, does she want to know where mom's old scarf is, and dad's necklace. To me, that alone didn't make any sense. They were only accessories after all, ones that those two loved with all their heart. She wanted to know where they were, and then she would let me go, I wouldn't be tortured, killed, or separated from the others for any longer, I would go right back to them. I was stuck in that narrow thought, the option of getting out of here. My fear was forcing me to focus on that and only that, getting away from Luna. As far away as I possibly could.

I knew exactly where the two accessories were, both of which in my parents' old room, in that small little hill I called home. I saw them both when I went to visit with Naru, that's where they were located. All I had to do was give a simple answer, tell her where they were, and I was free, away from the terror that was ever so present in my mind, away from Luna, away from all of the threats that were less than a mile away from me, away from it all. Back to the Nest, back to everyone I loved to be around, back to my normal life. All I had to do was speak up. All I had to do was speak a short sentence. The accessories are where you killed them. That's all I needed to say.

Seconds passed.

Minutes passed.

My mouth still wouldn't move.

My temptations, they were there, so present that all I did was think about the prospect of swallowing my fear and talking, then getting taken back to where I belonged. That's what I wanted, that's all that I wanted. I wanted to go back, make sure Vero was okay, make sure everyone at the Nest is safe, and go back, and spend time with Naru and Shiro. That's all I wanted.

But I didn't talk.

As close as I was to giving up every bit of information I had, based on fear alone, I didn't. My thoughts caught up with my panicked brain, and my rationality saved me. _What does she need them for? Why would she ever want simple accessories? Why would she go to such ends as to send a high-ranking Void admin our way, just to capture me, take me to a place that isn't even their normal base, just for a scarf and and necklace? What possible reason could she have?_

I held my tongue for longer.

I gulped, feeling every small twitch my body was in the process of making.

"I-I-I… I-I refuse…" I gave all of my effort, and I managed to get two words out, the only ones I needed to. She wanted them for something, what it was, I had no idea. There was no possible way it was for a good purpose though. I couldn't fathom how, but she must have been able to do something dangerous with the two pieces, there wasn't another explanation. For that reason, I couldn't tell her where they were. That wasn't an option, not when I risk her gaining more power than she already has at her disposal. That's all it was, a risk, one there was no way I was taking. Too many gray areas, not enough information in my head, not enough of a chance that everything would turn out okay.

Luna's expression was unchanging, still staring into my soul. Ever so slowly, her smile grew, and she let out a laugh. "I knew you wouldn't let it go easily, you're just not the type to crack, are you?" She sighed, and her voice lost its mellow tone. It was annoyed, back to how I heard Luna all other times she talked. Back to Luna, not a persona. "Everything has its breaking point though, and I know just what buttons to push in order to force you to yours." Her smile grew once more, and she brought her head closer to mine, and my terror just rose. Much more than I could describe.

I wanted to protest, to interject her, to say something, but my mind was still stuck, trapped in the fear I've had this whole time. At this point in time, I was nothing. I was incapable. I was useless. Actually, useless isn't the right word.

I'm helpless.

Just like before.

"Say, Kuro, I haven't heard you scream in a long time, not even the last time we crossed paths, I haven't gotten much out of you since you were but a small eevee." She licked her lips, right next to my ear, making me shiver uncomfortably. "I think that should change today."

Luna slowly brought one of her forepaws up to her face, in between the two of us. It bagan to emanate a dull glow, not comparing to the shine from both of our rings, hers from excitement, mine from fear. The dim light ever so steadily solidified, turning into a translucent purple sabre of sorts. Just the sight of it filled me with more unease.

"This is a rather interesting ability I have, you see, this looks dangerous, doesn't it?" She waved the sharp-looking light in front of my face. "It doesn't have the capability of causing physical injury, despite how it looks. You wouldn't believe how much time and effort it took to master something like this, it wasn't very easy. It may not injure you, but it has a purpose that I adore." She put her paw down, and slowly dragged the side of it down my chest, creating very small shocks through my body. She continued until the blade reached one of my hind legs.

"It hurts like hell."

She jammed it into my leg, and my vision blacked out for a split second. I couldn't see a thing, all just vanished, until color filled my eyes again. It was almost a reflex to scream right after, the pain was sharp, as if I had been shred apart by something sharp, I gasped, but quickly clamped my teeth into the inside of my mouth, immediately drawing blood, but it kept me from screaming. I didn't want her to let me scream, that's what she wanted, she wanted me to yell, to let my voice out in agony, but I didn't want to give her that. As long as I could help it, I didn't want to give her any satisfaction whatsoever. My leg burned from my previous injuries, and now had such an awful, sharp, intense pain accompanying it. I was biting myself hard, feeling my own blood begin to enter my mouth.

Luna began laughing, not like before though. She was different now, this wasn't just a sadistic laugh, it was meanicing, it was one that had hunger for more. "Come on little Kuro, yell for me, scream!"

She started to press the sabre deeper into my leg, making me bite into myself more, resisting any possible sounds I might make to signal the unimaginable pain I was feeling. The entirety of my body was still trembling, but my leg in particular was intensely shaking from the new extreme feeling. I felt the urge to scream bubble up, but I resisted, I continued doing nothing but resisting as much as I possibly could.

"C-Come on, yell, scream, show me your pain!" Luna was breathing heavily now, moving the sabre up and down my leg, intensifying the pain that much more. The sick umbreon's rings began to shine brightly, and I had to hold back much more. The pain was getting worse and worse by the second, I was on the verge of straight up passing out from it. The blade felt like it was breaking through my bones, it felt like it was tearing my flesh apart slowly and painfully, but if it actually was, I would be bleeding from places that weren't my mouth. As far as I knew, I wasn't I was just under the most amount of pain I ever have been. Not any amount of recoil I've felt in the past, not any injury I have sustained, none of it added up to this. I couldn't fathom how much was stored in my leg, it was enough to make me go insane.

Another second passed, and I felt a few drops of something on my other hind leg, though I wasn't sure as to what. I couldn't think about it much either, I was too busy resisting my vocal recognition of pain. I took it as Luna getting carried away and accidentally giving me an injury, that was the only thought that popped into my head, as my mind slowly cracked from the incomprehensible feeling within me. The bubbling urge to yell grew more and more, she would stop if I screamed, but then what? Would she ask me to talk again, and when I refuse, just repeat? I didn't know, and I was afraid to find out.

"Y-You're breaking, I can tell! Do it!" Her tone sounded more and more desperate as she kept sliding the blade up and down my leg. She's a monster, plain and simple. I glanced into her eyes between my curtains of black space, and they mortified me. Both back when I was a young child, and now. They looked exactly the same as they did back then, the same eyes the same lustful stare.

With that, she pressed the sabre into me more, and I let out the most pained scream I have in all of my memory.

Once I was finished letting my vocal chords release, I was breathing heavily, I sounded like I was in hysterics. It made sense, I was losing my mind.

A second after I screamed, I felt the sabre slowly get removed from my body, and I felt the wet sensation on my leg increase, dampening my fur. Luna was practically panting over my body, and I was taking in heavy breaths. I immediately shut my eyes tight, not wanting to look at her. It would drive me over the edge, I was already dangerously close to losing it even more thanks to the pain.

I wished it just ended there.

Luna leaned closely over my body, rubbing against me. She brought her head right up to mine, and dragged her tongue up my cheek, causing my whole body to tremble more than it already was. She sickeningly giggled, and she was so close to me that I was able to feel each strand of her fur.

I wished she would just stop.

My panicked mind lost it, I wanted to pass out, but I couldn't. My body kept on fighting to stay conscious, even though all I wanted was to lose it, I didn't want to be here, I didn't want to be close to Luna, I wanted her to leave, I wanted all of this to be over. If I was forced to relive my past experiences like this…

I barely wanted to live.

I would rather die.

I just wanted her to kill me.

* * *

Hello Readers!

A quick update? Yay! I did a good thing! Be proud of me! Or don't, I don't mind. :p

I hope you're all doing well! And… and…. Um…. I don't really have any updates or anything, so I have no idea what to say! :D *Sweats a little*

Annnnyywhhooo, thank all of you who have sent in reviews, PMs, etc. I love all of them, and I love talking to anyone who just wants to talk! About the story or otherwise, I love the interaction! Thank you to my beta reader for making sure my chapters aren't as crappy as they could be! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	39. Ignorance

**Naru**

The distant sounds of the Nest, when laying in a field away from everything, they never really changed. A lot of chatter, some occasional loud yelps and the distinct crack of an attack being launched at someone for training, all of it always sounded the same. I didn't hear them too often though, usually drowned out by the voices of the two other wonderful pokemon I lived with, or someone else I was communicating with. I was always talking, I loved just expressing myself to everyone, which is odd, considering how I was back in Myriad, but perhaps that's why I'm so into it now. I was never able to socialize, and now that I can, I make the most of it.

 _I should get going._

I flipped from my back to my stomach on the ground heavily, and slowly pushed up with my legs, standing on all fours. After a pause and a stretch, I turned in the other direction and began walking through the beast that was the Nest, aiming to meet up with Shard for training. I haven't gone in a few days, but she hasn't scolded me for it. I couldn't avoid doing anything forever though, despite how little motivation I really had, I couldn't lose all of the progress I've made over the near three months spent here, I worked way too hard to get to where I am now to just let it slip away because of something as silly as not feeling motivated.

I dragged my four paws across the shop area of the Nest, the most populated portion to my knowledge. It made sense after all, this was the only place that literally everyone had some amount of reason to go to, even if it was as simple as to get some food for the week. I knew that I found myself here quite often, though more because anyone I got into a conversation with was always in this vicinity. As well as a store, it was also just a common place to interact with one another. I liked it here quite a bit, but this wasn't where I wanted to be right now.

I dragged myself through the shopping district of the Nest, and continued on to my destination. Since I had the Nest's layout memorized at this point, it never took me long to get from one place to the next, though today I was sluggish, so it was taking a bit longer than normal. The weather was still cold, I could tell due to the fact I couldn't feel it. I certainly feel hot when it's warm out, but when it's cold, I just feel neutral, which isn't a bad thing, judging by how the others react to really cold weather. I would much rather feel like I physically do now, as opposed to how they all describe it.

…

After a bit of walking, I made it to the field Shard and I usually used for training, but she wasn't present, which was odd. I took a while to look around for her, but she was nowhere to be seen, so I assumed she was out on a mission and unable to work with me today. She would usually tell me if that was the case, but I hadn't shown up for the last two sessions, so it made sense that I was ignorant to her absence. I wondered if I should try a bit of training on my own, but I decided against it, not wanting to injure myself. I was working on some new techniques with her, and they weren't safe just to try alone, so it would be better if I stopped and waited for her to come back for the next one.

I decided to sit down in the center of the small dirt area, just as I was in the field prior. I only sat for a minute or two, and then I fell over on my back, closing my eyes to hide from the sun shrouded in a small clump of clouds. I sighed to myself, and relaxed my body in the dirt, forming itself in my fur under me. I felt it gather between the fibers of it, and Curled one of my paws up against it, accumulating more. The dirt was soft and firm at the same time, and it didn't feel unpleasant to grasp it like I was in the process of doing. As I was settling in with the earth, my mind was blank, empty.

I controlled my breathing, trying to calm myself down as much as possible, trying to keep my mind focused on the prospect of being blank. Trying to fully and completely clear my head. I started to take deep breathes, long and slow ones in an attempt to keep my nerves down and out of my grasp.

I felt a small pressure build up in my throat, but I swallowed it down and went back to breathing, despite my four legs beginning to tremble. I went from laying on my back to my side, and I curled up, eyes still shut tight in an attempt to stay calm. I brought one of my paws to my mouth and bit on it, not hard enough for it to bleed, but enough to where I felt my fangs begin to dig into my body. The notion helped me when I was younger, biting on my paw became an unhealthy habit I had for a long time, but I broke out of it after I had been on my own for a bit. The urge I felt to go back to it was far too strong for me to resist though, and I didn't put much effort forward to do so. It tasted like the literal dirt caked within it, but I didn't really care, I just couldn't stop myself.

The pressure in my throat felt more and more weighted as each second passed, which wasn't helping. I felt like I was about to go into hysterics, but all I let out was a few small whimpers before managing to stop myself. I clenched onto my paw tighter, and felt myself bleed a little, prompting me to stop before I made it worse. I went back to taking heavy breaths, flipping over onto my stomach and planting my head on the ground. I couldn't just blank my thoughts, I learned that the moment my throat began to feel like it had additional weight. _Nothing… Nothing works…_

I was not in a good emotional state. It was pretty obvious to everyone that I was having a hard time keeping myself sane, despite the methods I tried, nothing made me any better for more than an hour or two. My mind didn't hold still, it was on a fast track all over the place, from possibilities, to doubt, to fear, to hope, and a lack thereof. I couldn't control it, it wasn't possible to keep my head straight with the current situation, neither probable nor possible.

Right when I was informed, as soon as Core told me that we didn't have contact with Kuro, I felt a spike, an awful feeling in my chest, one that nearly knocked me out on the spot. Immediately after, Core managed to talk me down, kept me from losing it on the spot, and proposing all of the different possibilities as to where Kuro could be, and how he's certainly safe. Since I was in such a panic, I bought it back then, but it's evident that the likelihood of him being okay is far, far less than that of him being in danger. Vero reported back everything that happened at that small civilization, from start to finish. The two of them being stuck in a room that emulated a prison cell, to the arrival of the mawile without a consciousness and a strange delphox whose identity is mostly unknown, but highly likely to belong to the Void, considering her control over the mindless mawile.

Then she made it to the end… Kuro was hit with something devastating in order to protect one of the locals from death, and he was taken by the delphox, as the two likely Void members made their leave. Apparently there was also an odd haxorus living there, who Vero said was suspicious, but it was unclear why he acted the way he did. I didn't pay much attention to that part, I was already gone, already too busy thinking about whether Kuro was safe or not. I was comforted by Kage, Vero, Core, Shard, a bunch of Ravens, they all tried to help, and they did briefly. From them, I also made the decision that Charm and Shiro were not to know about this, they were told that Kuro was off on a joint mission from the first one, and that he would come back as soon as it was completed. Luckily the two of them bought into it, despite Shiro putting up a little bit of a fight with questions, but I was able to squeeze my way through answering all of them, albeit not very truthfully. I also had to keep my normal enthusiasm while doing it, which was eons more difficult to accomplish than fabricating what I was saying. While resisting a breakdown, I was told to give it time, and to have faith, to not lose hope in Kuro. I didn't, and I still haven't, not after the first two hours.

Not after the first eight.

Not after a day had passed.

Not after three had passed.

Six days later, I still had hope. I wasn't just going to give up, I knew that Kuro is amazing, and that he would find a way back. I kept on telling myself that, over and over, I made myself recite it more times than I could count, both mentally, and verbally. The more I said it out loud, the more I thought about it, which wasn't doing well for my health. I always thought about what the case would be if he was in possession of the Void, what they would do to him, if he would make it out okay, if he would make it out alive. Getting swamped by every single one of these, it slowly ate away at my emotional state, until I became what I am now.

I didn't know how to describe my current mental state, I wasn't to the point of being too far gone, but I wasn't what you would call stable. I had a hard time focusing, even when it came to talking idly, I had a hard time just having cohesive thoughts, I could barely think. Sometimes, I would feel like I got a little better, I felt like I could improve going forward, and after an hour, that idea washed away instantly. I was back to feeling more anxious than I could describe, I was back to biting on my paw, I was back to not being able to think, everything about my mental state that was bad, I jumped straight back to it.

Not only was I not sure how to describe it, but I didn't know what the biggest thing bothering me was. I had no idea whether it was the possibility of Kuro being not safe, being hurt, being dead, or just… simply not knowing. The fact that I didn't know is what was always present, always stuck right in the forefront of my mind, it was always the first thing I worried about when Kuro popped into my head, not all of the disgusting possibilities, but the fact that I had no idea what was really happening, not even a clue. I hated it, and it slowly but surely ate me from the inside out, I couldn't stand it. Whenever it popped into my head, I wanted to lay down and cry, have a straight up emotional breakdown out of fear alone, but I resisted it every time. I wasn't going to improve if I gave into my emotions like that so I didn't let myself do it, despite how much of a hypocrite I was being.

I grit my teeth and hit my head against the ground once to snap myself out of it. Luckily, I wasn't going to see Shiro or Charm for a little bit, Charm was off to the shack that Kuro first found Shiro in, as he was completing a small task for the Nest, safely, thanks the new security systems there. Shiro was spending some time with Kage, who offered to walk around with her and talk about a bunch of things in order to take some weight off of me. I really didn't want to have to fake my emotions at the moment, so I would be happy to just be by myself in our room. Maybe I would break down and cry, though I made it a point to not do that too often, despite the aforementioned hypocrisy. _I'm sorry… I told you not to hold back, and yet here I am, repressing all of my emotions…_

I very dryly chuckled to myself. I was self-loathing for having thoughts like that, for wanting to pretend I wasn't losing my head under all of this, even if I was well aware that was the case. It directly goes against everything I've told Kuro, against everything I've told myself even, but I couldn't handle my own brain right now. I was in a partnership, we always leaned on one another for everything. Out of the two of us, I was way more emotionally sound, I was able to accept my sadness, and power through it, expressing myself in the happiest ways I could, through enthusiasm, through cheerfulness, through being positive. That's how I operate, and I was happy with who I became as a pokemon.

Kuro was way less emotionally stable, ever since I met him, that was clear to me. At the very start, he didn't seem as if he was in touch with his emotions, but not long at all after, I saw him on the verge of tears, over nothing but a recollection of past events. He was, and is, far more sensitive than I am. Not that was a bad thing of course, if anything, I thought it was kinda cute, but it was an observation nonetheless. Out of the two of us, I was the emotionally strong one, I covered for him when he needed it. I liked doing that, I liked being able to help him when he needed it, it made me feel special, that I was able to always be there for him. _I just wish… I could help him now…_

I shook my head and closed my eyes, blanking my mind again. _I just need to go back and relax… Stop being stupid Naru, Kuro will be okay, you have faith in him, don't you? So stop being like this!_

I still couldn't help but worry.

* * *

 **Charm**

I was rummaging through a bunch of cloth and tools, each one clanging against one another as I moved them carefully to the side, lifting dust from the ground with every shift. I coughed again after breathing some of the stuff in, irritating my throat. I was supposed to be here to see if there was anything to salvage, whatever that word means, and take back before the Nest closed the guard in and made it so this counted as being outside. I assumed that I had to look for important stuff, so I did just that, look for anything that looks like it could be useful, and then take it back.

The whole reason I was doing this in the first place is because I couldn't get a new home back in the place I came from, because of some creepy-looking pokemon that I don't know the name of. I wasn't too sad though, because Miss Naru told me I could stay with her, Shiro and Mr. Kuro, and I liked them a lot, so what was there to be sad about? I was far away from where my mom and I last talked, but I'm glad I could be happy here regardless, at least, until we get a chance to actually go back and find a new home for me. _Unless they're okay with me staying here?_

I didn't like sitting around and doing nothing back at the Nest, so I offered to help in any way I could, and once I did, some weird pokemon with red metal all over his body told me that I would be very helpful if I came here and checked the place out, so I did so, because I just wanted to help! I was helped a bunch thanks to these pokemon, so repaying the favor was the best way I could feel better about it all! Plus, I had to do something for the pokemon that toko me in from a dangerous place! So I was happy to be doing so! _Even if I have no idea what I'm doing!_

I happily hummed to myself, continuing to mess with all of the random articles of clothing as well as some odd metal cylinders that I hadn't ever seen. In fact, there were a lot of things in here that looked like worn metal, which I assumed wasn't what I was supposed to bring back. Even if I knew I wasn't going to get yelled at or anything, I didn't want to mess up, I really just wanted to help out as best I could, even if I still had next to no idea if I had passed up some hidden treasure in here or something.

I was happy that I was able to stay with Miss Naru and Shiro while someone tried to find a room to seperate us a little bit, I felt much safer around them when i didn't recognize anything around me. This Nest place though, it was really pretty all over, so alive and colorful, I liked it a lot! It was still scary though, even with Shiro helping me learn the area better, I had no idea what to do here, but luckily, her and Miss Naru haven't left my side, and neither of them have stopped their positive attitudes! They made everything here so much easier!

I heard something loud below me suddenly, and my mind blanked for a second, wondering if it was my imagination. I stood completely still, and felt myself tremble a little. I wasn't really sure why though, I was in the Nest, nobody here was going to hurt me, maybe it was just because I was never comfortable meeting new pokemon, but either way, I was suddenly very frightened.

Last time I was scared like this, Miss Naru was able to make me feel a bit more safe, but this is the first time since I met all of them that I was separate, so that wasn't really an option this time. I think it's the same way for Shiro, Mr. Kuro and Miss Naru always seemed to make her happy, and feel safe, just like they did with me. I briefly wondered if Mr. Kuro was okay once he popped into my head, but Miss Naru told me that nothing is wrong, and that he's just on another mission for a bit, so there wasn't anything to be nervous about.

I gulped my fear down and held still for longer, listening to a few small creaks and shuffling. I, once more, decided that it was my imagination, and took a few breaths to calm myself down. If there was someone here, they wouldn't be scary, they would just be a Raven, so there wasn't anything to be so concerned about.

"DAMN IT!"

I fell over on my back from the sudden yelling, one that I didn't expect in the slightest. The voice sounded female, that's the only thing I recognized about it before shaking and slowly pushing myself up. I couldn't stop my trembling legs, but I tried my very best to stay calm, despite the low muttering I heard below me. I couldn't tell what exactly was being said, but there was definitely someone there, if the screech wasn't convincing enough.

I closed my eyes and took slow and easy breaths, still unsure of why I was so terrified to meet new pokemon, even if I knew they were going to be harmless to me. Either way, I couldn't just be a statue by the time they got up to where I was, on the upper floor of the shack, which also had a huge hole in it for some reason. The shuffles and steps sounded as if they were getting farther and farther away, until I couldn't hear them anymore. _Are they gone..?_

My body began to calm itself down a little, with the possibility that I wouldn't need to meet anyone new. After a second or two, I managed to fully relax again, feeling a gust of wind behind me, coming from the large hole in the upper portion of the shack. I felt the wind brush against me, and it helped my mind ease itself. _Whoever that was is gone, now I can calm down… I won't need to meet anyone new…_ "I wonder what they were doing here though…"

"Doing where?"

My body quickly froze a second time, the voice played again, this time, from what felt like a foot behind me. I stumbled forward and turned around, unsure of what I was going to do about the situation. I spotted a green, fox-like quadruped standing now in front of me, tilting her head in confusion. "Oops, did I scare ya? Sorry about that, can't help myself from messing with pokemon before I k- wait a sec."

 _What is… happening..? Before she what..?_ The pokemon I couldn't recognize walked closer to me, and I involuntarily fell back down and stiffened once more. She walked over to me, and stood above me, making me feel as if I were a pebble in front of a mountain. She leaned her head down and looked directly into my eyes, from about an inch away, and I couldn't help but tremble even more then before in the presence of whatever this pokemon was. "You're… well crap. I uh… miscalculated something." She backed off of me and stood by the the opening to the shack once more. "Um… how do I do this again... " She muttered. "I am sorry for scaring you?" she bowed her head down.

I was beyond confused, but she was apologizing, so I assumed that this was just another Raven who accidentally scared me. With that in mind, I gulped. "I-It's okay, you didn't m-mean to." I responded, though a bit quiet. I couldn't really force myself to talk loud, even when I needed to.

The weird pokemon lifted her head back up, and just stared at me. I was still trembling a bit, not really able to kick the fear I had in the back of my mind, especially when she looked so confused as to what she should be doing. We stared at each other for a few minutes in silence, neither one of us very comfortable with trying to say something it seemed. "Um… H-Hi there." She said in a confused tone, as if she wasn't sure that was the right thing to say.

I paused, not knowing how to respond to her lack of confidence. "H-Hi…" I simply said, nothing else on my mind. After that, the silent staring resumed, very awkward air hanging all around us.

"I wish I was better at talking normally, geez I need to ask for help." She sighed. "Situations like these never come up, I need to learn how to handle them, and why I need to handle them in the first place, this is annoying." She shook her head a bit and sighed again, while I stood still, at a complete loss. _What is she even talking about..?_

"Wait, did I say all that out loud?" She locked eyes with me, and I still felt terrified, just now coupled with much confusion. I gave her a very slow nod. "I need to work on that too then, thanks for the feedback child charmander."

 _Child charmander..? Never been called that before._ "N-No problem." I responded, unsure of how to further carry out this conversation, if you could call it that. Part of me was afraid to try and find a way to leave, scared of the possibility that she was faking me out and planned to attack me after I tried to get away, but on the flipside, I was also afraid to talk to her about anything, possibly saying something she didn't like and leading to a similar conclusion as the first option.

After the awkward silence hit its peak, I decided to open my mouth, wanting to at least ask a simple question, but before I got the chance, the pokemon in front of me jerked her head to the side and put a paw on it. "Geez! A little warning next time Firefox!" She let out an annoyed sigh, and I tilted my head in supreme confusion.

Before I even had the opportunity to question anything, the leaf-covered pokemon hopped out of the giant hole she jumped in from, and it sounded like she entered the bottom of it once more. The creaking of the floorboards that constructed this shack was louder than last time, much louder, as if the pokemon was stomping heavily, clearly irritated by something. I still had no idea who she was, or why she was here, but all I could assume is that she was part of the Nest, and that she had a task similar to mine, finding everything here that might be useful, and heading back.

 _I've been here for a long time, haven't I..?_

I very quickly got myself together and went to the bottom floor of the shack, the odd pokemon not present. _Where could she have gone?_ I wondered to myself, as I gave one final scan through all of the random items within this place, not finding anything important to take note of. I gave myself a small nod and decided to leave the area, very curious as to what came of the brief conversation I just had.

I ended up trying to forget that it happened, and heading back to the Nest,

* * *

Hello Readers!

A bit of a short chapter, but another one regardless! Hope you all enjoy it! And I hope every last one of you are having a great day!

Fun fact, I actually got pretty emotional at the beginning of the chapter, to the point where I had to stop many times in the middle of it, because of my head getting all foggy. Since then, I've been debating whether I should explain in an author's note why this is, as it also relates to my inconsistent uploads and possible lack of quality lately. (Haven't been called out for it, so I don't know if they've been worse or not :p) Soooooo, after some thought, I decided on explaining all of it right here! Story time! If you don't care, that's perfectly fine! Skip it all! I understand, not like people always like hearing about everyone else's issues, so if you don't want to, don't force yourself! To those of you who don't care, See You Next Chapter!

Now though, onto story time: When I say I got emotional during the first part of this chapter, I mainly mean most of Naru's perspective. Usually, when writing, I never get too worked up or anything, because I have everything planned out, and when I'm ready for it, whatever happens in the story that is, I typically don't get emotional. This however, was a special case, because it so-accurately describes something I've been going through for roughly a month and a half now, maybe a bit shorter.

For some backstory, I met a person around December I believe, who I went on to talk to every single day until April 6th. Just by that alone, I think it's easy to see that we're close by now, as talking for nearly five straight months does that to a pair. :p But anywho, at first we only really talked, not as ourselves, but role-played as OCs we both made around the time we met. Over time, we began talking more and more out of character, as people, and learned more about one another. One of the things I learned about them, is that they had a slowly but surely deteriorating mental state, which didn't sit well with me ever since I figured it out, but I did what I could to help regardless.

Around April second I believe, this person ended up attempting to do something that's best unmentioned, however, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out what. Right after that, my mind was pretty… you know, not stable. I still tried my very best to help the situation, but the next day, they tried the same thing again, which made doing that all the more difficult. Finally, on April 6th, they tried for the third and final time, ending up with an injury afterwards. Besides me absolutely losing it, they seemed as if they wouldn't try anything of the sort again, which I hoped was true, allowing me to calm down just a bit.

Right after all of this happened, they left, barely a word about it. They were just gone, and I had no way to get into contact with them again. This went on for exactly a month, until May 6th, and during that time, I ended up getting to this point in the story, namely thinking about how I was going to write out Naru's perspective, and once I did, I put two and two together, and well, Naru and I right there had pretty much the same exact thought process. Someone being gone, having no idea what they're going through, having no idea if they would be okay or not, all of it, that's exactly how I felt through it all. So, writing that bit was just a little bit tough at the time, and still kinda is, as the situation isn't exactly solved, but it's improving at the very least. Hopefully the situation for both me, and Naru gets all better in the future! I mean, I control one of them, so not too sure why I need to hope, but um… reasons! :D

Anywho, to anyone who actually decided to read all of this, thanks for sticking around! You get a virtual cookie! I want to thank everyone who has sent in more reviews and PMs, all of that stuff, it makes me really happy and I appreciate every bit of it! I want to thank my beta reader for cleaning up all of my chapters! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	40. A Step Towards Recovery

**Shine**

There's always a fine line between what you think the right choice is, and the wrong one. Choosing between rotting away in a room for who knows how long and going off with a random sylveon I apparently interrupted the mission of, that was an easy choice at the time. I had a chance to improve my situation, to go out and do something, to actually work towards a goal of some kind, it seemed so enticing, why wouldn't I take the opportunity as it presented itself? _Too bad I had no idea what I was getting myself into…_

It's not like I thought I made a bad choice, I just might have… given it more thought had I known what exactly the 'goal' I was going to work towards was. I knew it probably wasn't going to be the most noble cause in the world, or I figured at least, after seeing the protocol of one of their members, but I wasn't expecting to just kind of be… what I am now. _And running away wouldn't help the situation… I would probably be chased back._

Well, to say the least, I was now stuck in a group that I wasn't too glad to be within, and I don't really think I could do anything about it at the moment. I took a risk though, I had to be ready for whatever happened based on that risk alone. Getting stuck into a group where I now had to obey a leader who wasn't fond of… anyone it seemed, I had to be ready for that, and I was to an extent. I couldn't expect anything grand after one of them nearly shattered my ribs beyond repair because I made a mission slightly harder for them, even after I helped out too. That same guy is pretty close with the leader of this group, a garchomp, one that barely emoted at all, just ran a small collection of misfits to do some bidding he was too lazy to participate in. Or rather, he just didn't want to. I couldn't tell if it was actually laziness, or lack of interest. _Either way, I don't like the guy…_

Of course, as soon as I arrived here, I wondered many, many things. Like what the purpose behind it all was, and why exactly we needed to go around and steal these… gem things from other pokemon. I had no idea what they were being used for, I just know that I needed to contribute, or I would be punished, and if that garchomp has any similarities to the pokemon he leads, I want nothing to do with any punishment. _Especially from someone with claws… I don't want to think about what he may do if I make him mad._

Other than wondering what the purpose of this group was, I also wondered why exactly Crescent would lead me back to a place like this, when rather than a goal, all it's done is confuse the crap out of me. In fact, turns out, she was required to recruit someone soon, otherwise, she would be next on the row of being 'punished.' With that in my head, it seemed like her main priority was to avoid that, rather than help my pathetic self back in Myriad. I understood though, I mean, I haven't been able to talk to her since we arrived here a day ago, but from the look of things, she may as well have been a captive here. She wasn't treated well by any of the others, but they didn't seem to try and attack her or anything. Based on what happened when I first met Crescent, she seemed like she could easily stomp out any of the other pokemon here, save for the leader. _She made it no secret that she threatens anyone who suggests that they could hurt her…_

I felt just as out of place as possible here, I had no idea how anything worked, what I was supposed to do, how I was supposed to do it, if I was doing the right thing, if it was worth it to leave Myriad, to leave Cyan and the rest of my siblings, if this was the right way to try and fix my mental problems, if everything was going to work out after sticking around this place for long, if I was even going to be safe in a place like this… I had no idea. I was clueless, blank, ignorant, hoping that I didn't make the wrong choice.

I took in a breath and opened my eyes, revealing the dusk sky, making me squint and close them once more. I waited for a few seconds, and tried over and over, until my eyes adapted to the sunlight. I rolled over on my stomach and stretched each of my limbs out, before rubbing my face in the ground to wake myself up. I was on a small cloth, only covering my head, while the rest of my body rested on the soft feeling of grass and dirt. Sleeping on the ground with a makeshift pillow was oddly comforting, much more so than I imagined after sleeping in a bed constructed out of straw from a location I was unaware of. Not that I was disappointed in any way though, there had to be something good to come of my first impressions of staying with this group.

I pushed myself up and off of the ground and shook my head, looking all around me, seeing nothing but an open field and a small body of water not too far away from the area. The air was cold, as usual when this time of year comes around, but not enough to be anything more than an annoyance. Surrounding me, laid what was currently two pokemon, Crescent, and the electabuzz that I wasn't too fond of. The rest of the group had separated from us off to another area to find more weird gems of varying color, while us three were left here to travel the outskirts of Myriad and then to somewhere new. I only got the chance to glance at a few of the other group members, and I don't even remember half of their species, but I assumed that I would end up running into them another time in the future anyway.

I spent a few days sort of familiarizing myself with the protocol this group usually takes when it comes to finding and taking these gems of sorts. Through the whole week, I didn't even get a chance to ask anyone questions, I was only able to observe the way everyone else worked, namely how they readied themselves to, for lack of a better term, rob other pokemon. After seeing that for the first time, as… questionable as it was, I had to wonder if all of this was right or not, if I was getting myself into something I didn't want to touch. I had so much doubt within my head, so much of the future that I was ignorant to, so much of the present I was unsure of, I was receiving the full impact of the risk I took right off the bat. Yet… I couldn't deny that it might have been helping my mental state.

It's pretty idiotic to think about, but just having something to do, even if I have no idea the intentions of it, helped me. I couldn't explain it if I tried, but knowing that you have something to do, rather than being stuck in one spot, is much better than being stuck in a loop, one that you have no idea how to get out of. At the moment, I didn't care if what I was doing could be considered right or wrong, all I cared about was working to accomplish something. _I'll deal with the consequences of my actions later. One thing at a time._

I dragged my body through the thin blades of grass, heading to the glistening pond nearby, and dunking my head into it. The water was freezing cold, as was the weather currently, but regardless, what better way was there to wake yourself up? After leaving my head on the verge of frostbite for a few more moments, I brought it back up, and shook my head roughly, drying the fur that covered my face and ears. Now fully awake, I backed up from the pond, no longer contemplating whether joining up with whatever this group was the right decision or not. I would find out eventually, and that's when I would deal with it.

The group split up last night, leaving the three of us here. Honestly, I had no idea how working with other pokemon was going to take place, I never really had the opportunity to work in a group, this will be a totally new experience for me. I didn't have a problem trying to work with Crescent, as even if she recruited me only because she needed to, she still had a kind demeanor, so I wasn't worried. The electabuzz on the flipside, for obvious reasons, working that out will be… interesting. _Hopefully he doesn't try and break me in my sleep…_

I sat down back where I had just been sleeping, looking up to the sky, noticing quite the accumulation of clouds. _What a time for the weather to act up…_ Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Crescent shifting and turning a bit, before her body rising off of the ground. Once she steadied herself and stretched, she gave me a quick glance, and looked away, presumably trying to wake herself up. I re-closed my eyes, trying to think of any areas around here that may have been worth investigating for gems. It didn't take very long for me to come up blank, which caused me to quietly sigh. _I wish I had a better idea as to where we could search, it would give me something to do._

"Don't you look focused."

A feminine voice came from my right, where I was looking earlier, the same sylveon that took me here in the first place. "As focused as I can be when I have no idea what I'm doing." I responded in a bored voice. _Maybe we'll end up wandering around to look for leads or something, anything was is better than rotting away in a shelter._

Crescent moved closer to me, her eyes evading me for some reason. "It's not that hard to get the hang of, the real problem is messing with the wrong pokemon." I nodded to each of her words. "Seeing as you nearly knocked out two pokemon clearly more experienced than you though, a little training and I think you'll end up just fine." _Because that'll happen again…_

"You do realize that was dumb luck, right?" I had never been in an actual fight before that, I just tried to imitate everything Kuro did when I saw him do the same. Even then, I flopped for the most part, and ended up doing… something, using some kind of attack I had no idea I could even pull off in the first place. That entire confrontation was nothing but luck.

"Maybe not, who knows, you could have some hidden talent locked within you!" She tried to smiled, though it was obviously forced.

"Had you not shown up, I would have broken ribs and possibly more right now, if I had any sort of talent, that wouldn't be the case. My luck ran out." I bluntly replied.

Crescent seemed wordless after I was finished talking. "W-Well… Um… You clearly had some idea what you were doing, even if it was a vague one."

"I saw one pokemon fight over a month ago, that's all I have in terms of an 'idea.'" I ended up turning my head to the ground ever so slightly. _If only he had a chance to teach me a thing or two… but he must have been busy._

"That's it..? You must have had a sheltered life before you witnessed that."

"I was alone with a few adults and some other younger ones. That's it, we never fought between one another, nor was there any violence close enough to warrant me witnessing anything." _And I'm thankful for it._

Crescent paused for a few seconds. "No violence between the pokemon you lived with?" I nodded in affirmation. "Your group sounds kind, part of me wants to meet them. A lot more peaceful than anything here." I coughed.

 _If only you had the chance to meet them…_ "They were kind, they always watched after the little ones, and helped everyone there. They deserved better lives than what what was given to them." I reminisced a bit. Everyone in that group, the adults and the children, they always helped one another, never let one fall behind, not once. But now, even the ones other than me who are left, they're too broken to help each other anymore. It's pointless to try and fix someone who has already shattered when you have too.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Crescent taking a step back, looking a bit regretful. I took a second to wonder why, then realized that everything I had just said to her was in past tense. I may as well have told her they were dead.

"I-I'm sure… things will get better from now on. There's still a lot of the future left for you to look forward to…" Her voice was much quieter than before, making me let out a small sigh.

"It's not worth harping over now. The only thing I want to do is get as far away from that thought as possible." Thinking about the future… I had already done that enough since I laid my eyes on all of my friends' corpses. It wasn't a notion I wanted to continue any more than I had to.

"I-I get it, sorry for um… bringing that up." She matched my body, looking to the ground a little bit. I just shook my head, as it to tell her not to worry about it. I didn't feel like talking about it any longer, or talking much at all, my voice was, while better, still scratchy. At the very least, my cough seemed to go away for the most part, so I wasn't going to die from lack of health. "And also… sorry for bringing you here."

I turned to look at Crescent, still a few feet away, her head was tilted much farther down than previously. "I advertised this place like it was something great for you to try, but a lot of that came off my tongue automatically, I'm sure you've already seen that working here isn't the most pleasant thing in the world." She spoke apologetically.

Despite figuring out that my hunch was right, I wasn't exactly angry with her or anything. As much as I wished that I was being invited here out of nothing but good intentions, she must have had her reasons, especially from what I know of this group so far. "I forgive you." I took a breath to prevent myself from coughing. "It's not like rotting away in a huge town was going to do me any good. No matter how crappy the conditions here are, anything is better than that. I'd sooner give myself up to the whatever organization that took me a month ago than keep with my old routine." I may have used a bit of hyperbole, but I made my point clear.

Another pause between the two of us took place, this one longer than the last. I hoped I hadn't said too much, but at the same time, couldn't find myself caring if I did. I was trying to express my emotions, and the only way I could do that right now was through talking, as blunt and rash as I might have sounded.

"I wondered what was bugging you since I first saw your condition." Crescent walked closer to me again and looked me in the eye. "You're brooding. All you're focusing on is what happened in the past, and running away from it, rather than trying to do something about it." _You're certainly not wrong…_ "Nothing is going to get better unless you do something about it. Rotting away in a town as you put it, you're the only one who can change all of that."

I didn't break eye contact. "I know that already." _Even if i'm the only one who can do anything about it…_ "That doesn't make it any easier. I've tried over and over to think of something that can help what goes through my head, nothing has worked."

The tension of the stare down between the two of us rose, I could feel it. "Have you tried everything though? Everything that goes through your head? Or are you avoiding certain points because you don't want to try them?"

 _What could I possibly be missing that would help me? I can't just stop thinking about what happened, and how I couldn't do anything to stop it, and how… how I couldn't keep them safe like I wanted to._ "I've tried everything that pops into my head, everything practical." I began to not like where this conversation was going, I was starting to get worked up.

"Then there's part of the whole issue you don't understand." _How would you know..? Through one conversation and a week of being in the same area you know everything that goes through my head?_

"I doubt it. You can't get much more black and white than what happened. There's no hidden side to this that I'm not seeing, I'm having a hard time getting over past events. It's that simple." It had to be that simple.

She shook her head, taking a step closer. "Whatever happened to you specifically, that's black and white. What's going on in your head, that's the opposite. Nothing in your head has two simple sides like that."

I know it probably wasn't her intention, but it almost felt like she was patronizing me. Intentional or not, it wasn't making me very happy. "How can you possibly know what's going on in my head? So much has happened in such a short amount of time, I can't even process all of it… Arceus, I barely know what's in my mind!" I coughed, straining my voice from yelling wasn't the best idea.

"You're forgetting something, I know more about you than you know about me. In fact, all you know is my name." Crescent kept her composure, despite my small outburst. "Ever think of what I've dealt with in the past? I can't say I relate to you, but I've met so many others similar, I know exactly what's going through your head." _I don't get it…_

I ended up averting my eyes. I wasn't exactly proud of how angry I was getting, even if it was hard to resist it in the first place. It was rare someone was able to get under my skin like this in the past, maybe I was ever so slowly changing because of all that's happened, and it wasn't a welcome change. "Then tell me… tell me what's wrong with me... " I came off as a lot more desperate than I anticipated.

Crescent remained with the silent air for a bit, staring me down. It felt almost like she was taunting me with this… and I hated it. I had no idea what her intentions actually were, or if she was meaning to be as insulting as it all felt. It was way more likely that I was over-analyzing, and getting worked up over nothing because I wasn't in the best mood, but either way, I couldn't deny what I felt in my head. Nothing but a blur, a meshed up image of colors I couldn't decipher, none of it was black and white at all. _And she knows that… She read me like a book… Almost as if she knows my head better than I do._

"You're not in the state you are because of what happened, that's not all of it at least. Obviously it upsets you, but that's not why you're acting the way you are. That's not why everything in your head is so uncertain, and why you're brooding as much as you are." I looked back at Crescent as she spoke, admittedly intrigued, though still annoyed. "It's more than just being upset about losing pokemon you care about, it's the way it happened. I don't know details, but I can already tell that's what's getting through to you, and cutting deep."

I attempted to take her sentence apart, to determine what she meant, but I couldn't. In my head, it made no sense. Why did it matter how they all died? The point is, they're gone, that's that. They're not coming back, I had to sit back, and see the aftermath of it all, it was clear to me that all of the ones that weren't right with me were gone. That notion alone… that wasn't what was bothering me? It was the method? That didn't make sense to me. Had it been any different, they would still be gone, I would still be in the same state, maybe worse if the ones who killed them were brutal. Nothing would change. Say they were attacked in a different way, the only difference with that would be one thing, I might have been with them, in the place I should have been. I might have died with them, like I should have. _Maybe dying there would have been better, I wouldn't be stuck here… feeling so useless like this…_

"Can't nail it?" Crescent spoke again, breaking the revived silence. I didn't do anything in response, still throwing around random theories in my head. "The way you feel, you're not just mourning, are you? There's more to it. If you were only mourning, this would all make sense to you, but it doesn't. Beyond all of that sadness and grief you feel inside of you, there's one more defining emotion, far more evident in your head, but hidden at the same time." She took a step closer, and put her head right beside mine. "Guilt."

The feeling of Crescent's breath washing over my ear made me shiver, whether it was the whisper itself or the word she said, I was unsure. The notion still made my body freeze, even if I didn't know the direct cause. _Guilt..? I feel guilty..? Why would I..?_

Crescent took a step back, looking at me as she was before. "I told you, I can't relate, but I've seen a lot of other pokemon who can. It's not about them being gone, not all of it, whoever you lost, you were close with them, never separate." She took a short pause. "You feel like you should have died with them, that you shouldn't be alive right now, or that you don't deserve to be alive when all of them are gone." My mind when numb. "You feel like there was something you could have done to stop this from happening, and because of that, because you couldn't actually prevent it, you feel as if you've failed them, whether it was within your control or not. Along with this, you feel like you should be dead, along with everyone you lost."

The dense air between the two of us didn't feel any different, but the fog that was gathering my head so predominantly, it all cleared out a bit. I never knew what was going through my head since I figured out about the incident, but I never really gave it the thought I needed to, did I? I just assumed, I guessed that the only reason I was upset, angry, unstable, depressed, I thought it was only because I lost them all. That wasn't all it was though, was it? I still wasn't used to being away from them, they were my family, all of us were always together, and I thought that's how it was going to be until our death date. All of us working together, helping one another, until further notice. Nothing would ever change, we would always be an inseparable group.

Then… we were pulled away from one another, sketched into two halves, neither one knowing where to go or what to do. Our grandfather, he lead us to Myriad, and he told us it was safe here, before leaving. I still don't know where he went, or if he's okay, but I always assumed he was doing good, out living in someplace happily. It was scary to be away from them, but I had Cyan to help me, and the rest of my siblings within our group. Not only that, but after a bit of waiting, I even got to see Kuro again, and show him that I had evolved, that I was stronger. I was even taller than him, that gave me a good laugh, it showed that even though all of us were split, we could have good moments, we can be happy at times, we just need to work towards re-uniting as much as we possibly could. Soon after all of this went through my head, Kuro left without a word, which I thought was odd of him to do. And not long after that… I was told about a discovery that was made not far from Myriad. The bodies of the majority of my family.

Right after I was told about all of this, I was in a state of disbelief. I knew Cyan wouldn't lie to me about anything, but at the same time, I couldn't just believe that all of them were found dead. That wasn't a possibility in my mind, call it being naive, I couldn't see it as possible. So what did I do? I went direct to the site that supposedly held their bodies. Have I ever made a worse mistake? Probably not. As soon as I made it to the sight, the smell alone was enough to make me sick, before I even took a step into the awful place.

Somehow, the putrid odor wasn't enough to turn me away though, neither was my sickness. So of course, I walked right into the shelter, and my vision went black right after. After an undisclosed amount of time passed, I woke up, blood matting my fur down from the spot I lost consciousness. I slowly stood up, and looked at what made me initially pass out. To say the very least, I confirmed in my mind, the rest of my family was dead. If there was any part of me denying it at that point, it was that pile of corpses, rotting, decomposing corpses, which finally shot all denial out of my system. After that, my mental state instantly declined to what it was for those weeks I spent aimlessly wandering around the town, and it hasn't gotten much better.

 _And the sylveon in front of me figured out the root of the problem in ten percent of the time I spent tossing and turning it in my head._

Like denial of my previous situation, the notion that I was only upset like this because more than half of my family was ripped away from me, that was gone from my mind. I belonged with them, they were the closest companions I had for the entirety of my life, and the moment we separate, they're gone. I should have died along with them, I agreed with that. I didn't deserve to be alive if they were dead, we lived as one, not as separated parts. If I couldn't do anything to help, then I deserved to be right along with them, right when whoever killed them all did the job. _I should be dead just like the rest of them… I really should._

"So? Am I right?" I had subconsciously dipped my head again, but it snapped to the attention of Crescent as she talked. "Looks like you just went into a trance or something, I had to have inspired some thought."

I paused, staring at her blankly. "You are." I took another long stretch of silence. "But that doesn't change anything. That's exactly how I feel, I should be dead along with them. And it's true."

She shook her head. "It's not. You're alive for a reason, everyone is. If you survived that experience of being separated, there has to be a reason behind it." I involuntarily let out a sigh.

"Right, I'm alive. I can't do anything though. If it took me multiple weeks and a random battle where I almost broke my ribs to even walk a foot out of that town, what can I do in the grand scheme of things? Nothing." I spoke concisely, there wasn't any room for interjection in my mind. "I'm not mentally sound, nor do I have any kind of talent for fighting as you suggest. I have no idea what I'm even doing at this camp, the only reason I'm here is because I was persuaded by you, with a goal, which I still don't have. All this is for me is an occupation so I don't lose my mind. I can't do anything to help anyone, or myself for that matter. My death date should have already been decided, I may as well be a useless vessel until the day I get attacked, and follow my family's trial, to get murdered and rot away in a random shack."

I closed my eyes, one of my forepaws twitching a little. _Hopefully I got my point across… and she'll leave me be._

I felt a light breeze of wind, followed by a loud snap, and a burning pressure on the side of my face, my body slumping to the ground a sliding a few feet over. I opened my eyes and brought my right forepaw to my head, rubbing the portion that was just impacted by a ribbon from Crescent. She walked over to me, leaning right above me, an inch away from my face.

"And who says you're useless? That you can't do anything? That you're not talented? That you should have died? That you can't help yourself? Who?" She stomped on my chest with her paw forcefully, causing me to cough again, along with a new ache. "It's you. You're the one telling yourself all of that. Nobody else. You're the roadblock in your life. Getting better after something like this isn't easy, but it's not even going to be possible if you don't do anything about it. It's an effort you need to make, you need to stop all that, you need to stop doubting your abilities, you need to give yourself confidence, you need to stop moping around, you need to do something, anything other than assume everything is over and your life doesn't mean a damn thing!" Crescent's voice got louder and louder with each word, as I was firmly pinned to the ground. "The only time you're useless is right now, when you're acting like this, like your world is over. Like you can't do anything with your life. It's idiotic. You're alive, you have a life to live, be thankful for that, and use it to the best of your ability. Don't assume it's over because you think you should be dead, accept that you're alive and do something other than say over and over that you should be dead!"

I laid motionless under her grip, not like I would be able to move even if I had the will to try. "Why are you saying all of this..? Why are you trying to help me?" I asked in a monotone voice. As far as anyone was concerned, I should look like a lost cause, as I thought I was. And yet, here Crescent is, taking things so far as to pin me to the ground and yell at me, trying to push her thoughts into my head.

"I'm trying to help you because I'm not heartless you idiot." She slapped me with a ribbon again, albeit lighter than last time. "You're screwed up in the head right now, but not too far gone. You can get help, you just need to provide it to yourself first. You need to be able to believe things can get better before anyone can show you."

I ended up closing my eyes again. "How can I just… believe that the same won't happen to me? And that I should be alive?"

"You won't be able to just do it immediately, it'll probably take some time, but sitting here and talking like that, at this rate, you'll regress into the state you were in before. Even if both of which are crappy, it's better you stay distracted with something to do, rather than ebb away in an orphanage by yourself." She shook her head and sighed. "I can't stand watching pokemon like you slowly die… It's sad to see, and it hurts that I can never do anything about it. I don't care about your survivor's guilt, watching you deteriorate into a shell that dies a pointless death isn't going to happen if I can help it."

We stayed in the same position for a bit, staring one another down. A long time passed, and no words were spoken, not until I was able to take a breath and relax myself from how tense I was before.

"Okay." Is all that came to my mind. "If you want to involve yourself, then I'll try."

I saw her draw a small smile and nod. Something in me told me to resist, to keep on harping on the past, to keep my ideology that I should be dead, but I knew what that would cause. Nothing good.

 _Maybe… I might be able to get better… Maybe…_

* * *

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	41. Recollection

**Kuro**

My whole body burned like nothing else. There were many reasons why, but one became quite evident to me as I spent more time here. There isn't even enough of a crack to the outside to let in proper lighting, and now, whenever the one who took me here tries to do some 'experiments,' the aftermath is this room increasing in temperature without remorse. Now, even when I had a break from all of the harm, my body was still searing. It was terrible. I don't even know how oxygen gets into this place with all exits sealed off.

 _Open._

I still never got used to being talked to mentally, even when Naru did it, I couldn't adapt. It didn't help that I couldn't block the noise out, as that's rather hard to do when it's literally inside of your head.

 _Open._

I felt the air get more and more thin with every second that passed, the combined heat and lack of a release for it made it hard to breathe, which was all I was focused on doing. I would usually try my best to observe the room around me, find something, anything that would give me a better idea of where I was, but that never worked, and it certainly wouldn't now, seeing as I could barely see even in bright light at the moment.

 _Open._

The voice kept on ringing through my head, coming from the delphox, a scientist from what I know now. Her trials for me to go through weren't pleasant. Not at all. Once she started to take in interest in how I would react to certain things, it got messy. She makes sure there's always something in my head to be terrified of, at any moment. I was already scared out of my mind, and yet, she managed to make it worse. Under my eyelids, I could see the faint pulsing purple light, something that she had kept in here at almost all times. It's her way of being here, observing me, without needing to actually come to this room.

 _Open._

No matter how many times I attempted to ignore her voice in my head, I couldn't. You would think a dark type would be immune to this, but she has some way to get passed that. She was able to paralyze me, and now, constantly be in my head at all times. I wouldn't call it as bad as the physical treatment I've gotten since I've been here, but it's still painful, and I could use less of that these days. The treatment of my body though, I could barely take it. I stopped resisting screams, I didn't care anymore. Resisting anything just made everything else harder, stopping myself from screaming was only going to make this worse. I already felt like someone jammed sticks in my eyes, and opening them was hard now.

 _Open._

I very slowly and painfully opened my eyes, only for an extreme wave of heat to blast into them, causing me to let out a loud yell, and shut my eyes on reflex again. My scream slowly filtered out, and I began heavily panting, along with trembling. I felt like I took in next to no air from all of this, but I couldn't help it. It was impossible for me to resist anything at this point, I couldn't will myself into it. I didn't like to think of it this way, but frankly, I was on the verge of tossing my mind away. I was about to stop caring about everything. Getting out of here, the extreme pain, the daily abuse from Luna, the emotional tremors she opened, all of it. I nearly stopped. I was close to giving up.

 _I'm surprised how much you can take. We may need to keep you alive, but I thought for sure you would be done for after all of this._ My mind stayed silent. I gave up on trying to communicate with their scientist already, I never got anywhere with it, so I didn't bother anymore. She would ask me questions, I would never answer, just like I never answered Luna. No matter how many times she comes back and reopens wounds, I'll sooner prevent myself from breathing then give her anything.

 _You can't seem to open your eyes anymore, not without effort._ I realized as she spoke, that I couldn't see the blurry purple light anymore, which would mean she stopped watching me, but was still talking to me. _I must say though, you're going to have many permanent scars after all this, assuming you get out alive, which I somewhat doubt, unless you give us what we want._

I didn't respond, and minutes passed, my breath as stable as it would be if I just ran two marathons.

 _If you stay silent for too long, we're going to lose our patience. I have other pokemon to learn about, and I'm sure Luna won't stay locked onto you as much as she is right now. We're a large organization, it wouldn't' be the hardest thing in the world to track down where the items are located in the first place. We've already checked places like their old home, the Nest, everywhere they went thoroughly, the list is narrow at this point._ As much as I wanted to communicate, I still remained quiet.

I learned something new a day ago, the Void went back to where I lived at first once more, looking for the two accessories. They came back with nothing, both confusing me, and causing me to be grateful. I had no idea how they could possibly miss them, especially if they claimed to search thoroughly, but I wasn't going to complain. It was a mystery, one that I couldn't task myself with solving right now. I was too focused one my fear to think about anything else.

 _If you won't speak up, you'll be nothing but a nonfunctioning body. You'll have a mind, that's it. Do your loved ones really want to see that?_ Her comments made to get under my skin worked way too easily. I was irritable while I was here, that hitmonchan, now called Nekro apparently, kicked everything off. He taunted me, said he wanted to go after Naru, and I wasn't going to listen to that. Any other Void member that's brought up anyone back at the Nest, whether it be this delphox or Luna, I lost it. That was the only time I ever responded to either of them, and perhaps that made me predictable, but I couldn't care less. At this point, I barely cared about anything. I just wanted this all to end, I didn't care how.

 _The Raven that was with you back in the place I captured you, she's an interesting one. I wished to take her in for tests too, but my orders didn't allow it. Based on her thought patterns, she seemed like your friend, right? You have a decently strong bond with her from what I read._ The fact that this pokemon could pick apart my mind was scary to say the least, but it seemed as if she couldn't read memories, which was the only good thing to come from all of this. If she could, they would already be on their way back here with the necklace and scarf, and I would most likely be dead.

 _I looked at a lot of the intel we have on you in particular, seems like this isn't the first time you've been in contact with our best. I think you should consider yourself lucky, having survived an encounter with Luna as a child, an attack from Rage, even one from Grace. That's certainly something to be proud of, don't you think? Surviving through all of those experiences? Many others in your position would easily die, but here you are, defying it all._ Reminiscing on all of these events bothered me, none of them were happy memories, all they did was further increase the mental torture I was already being submitted to.

 _I heard that the Void is planning on attacking the Nest. We have been for ages, but never had the confidence to do so. Luna takes the strangest risks, and yet, plays it safe with so many other tasks. I suppose attacking the Nest is one of those objectives we can't just hop onto immediately, even though I feel like we have the strength to do so._ I was hardly paying attention to anything she said.

My trembling became lighter as time went on, I still couldn't open my eyes, but forcing myself to deal with the pain somehow made it easier on me. Maybe it's because I was used to just taking it all from my recoil and the like, so embracing it was better than ressisting. It didn't go away, but I was able to think at the very least, even if nothing was really going through my head. It was rare I was able to focus hard enough to think about something other than whatever is going to happen to me next, but whenever I did, I always went to the Nest, to Naru and Shiro, to Charm, to Kage and Vero, to Shine, to Core, Shard and Kai, all of them. I wondered how they were all doing, if they were safe, and what they were up to. Most likely Nest tasks, as per normal. I found it odd that my mind went to Kai at all, he was a Void member too, but for some reason, I felt that his training, and actions toward me, were genuine, as if he was actually looking to make me stronger, to help me deal with whatever I'll need to approach in the future.

All of this was likely just me trying to find a random light in the darkness entrapping me though. It was far more conceivable that Kai is just another Void member, lurking in the Nest, just like Aven. I had no idea what Shine could be up to, if he was doing okay, if he even knows about what happened to the rest of the camp or not, if he was still with Cyan, I knew nothing. I just had to hope that he was doing okay.

Core and Shard have always been pokemon I respected a lot, Core having a connection to my parents helped that fact, but also his willingness to help me, his cheerful attitude, all of that. I wanted to talk more with him before I ended up getting taken here, but it was beyond my control at this point. Shard was such a perfect mentor match with Naru it's silly, the two are so similar, and yet, I can tell that's not all Shard has in her head. She's not just a klutzy mentor to help other pokemon because they're assigned to her, it was easy to tell that she cared deeply about all of the Ravens she interacted with, I learned that from both Naru and the short mach-battle I had with her. Shard and Core will always be pokemon I can look up to for sure.

Every time I thought about Kage and Vero, my mind went to two things: The finals in the applicants' tournament, and trying to teach someone for the first time. Kage was a respectable pokemon, very kind and caring, despite others finding him intimidating at times. I had a lot of simple conversations with him over our time at the Nest, and a small rivalry. He's always been stronger than me, ever since we first got here, he beat me in the finals, and every time I saw him battle, it was clear as day that he would be able to best me. Not that I was angry about it or anything, but keeping up was a good motivator to keep on trying my best when it came to training, along with all of my others reasons not to stop.

Vero, being someone I met for the first time on our first mission, I could tell she had the same caring nature as Kage, though not as verbal about it. She's a bit more blunt, and, for lack of a better word, aggressive. It wasn't a bad thing per se, but it was noticeable to me. She also had a thing for messing with others' heads, which annoyed me to a certain extent, but created a few fond memories in the process. I would say the fond ones are far more common than the annoyance. Plus, my first impression of her was saving half of the residents of that camp we went to on our first mission, so that painted a positive picture in my mind right off the bat.

I met Charm very recently, and was only able to spend roughly one day with him until everything took place that ended with me getting taken away, but I already had a sort of fondness for him. Maybe it's because at first, he reminded me of Shiro, though not exactly the same circumstances. After talking with him a bit, he stopped reminding me of Shiro and more of Shine, and right after, I started to gain a lot of respect for him. Despite his very young age, he wanted to tackle his mental blocks immediately, he wanted to know how to solve them, and takes steps to do so. Him and Shine both, they always wanted to help others, no matter what situation they were in. They did so much better than I did when I was younger, I was nothing but a mourning sack of flesh, but they were different, and I admired that about the two of them.

Me running into Shiro when I did could be classified as nothing but luck, and if I had to get lucky at any given time, I'm glad it was at that point. She spent who knows how long in that shack, without being able to seek food or water on her own, it must have been awful. Finding her and being able to provide her with what she needed while she was terrified was a stroke of luck for sure. The day came when Rage came to the same place, wanting to take Shiro back to the Void most likely, and do… whatever else with her, something I don't want to think about. I was able to get her away though, take her to safety, and began growing a relationship with her, along with Naru doing the same thing. After spending so much time with her, I honestly saw her as nothing less than a daughter. I had no idea how to raise a child, but I felt like she was a young vulpix I wanted to protect at all costs, and we provided her food, safety, support, it honestly felt like Naru and I were raising her. She was a bright young pokemon, shy, but smart and honest. I loved watching after her, and I couldn't wait to see who she would become. If that wasn't an example as to what I saw her as, I don't know what is.

 _Naru…_

What could I even say about Naru? There were so many things… From the very beginning, when we rammed into one another right after I had left my home and the forest for the first time, she always stood out to me. Granted, back then, I had no idea how pokemon were supposed to interact with one another, or rather, I had never really seen it outside of occasional glances at my parents, but still, she was in my head at all times after that. The reflex I had when I saw her getting trailed by a suspicious gallade, that didn't feel normal, I hadn't talked to her passed a name and an apology, and yet, I wanted to make sure nothing bad happened, no matter what. Either way, I immediately intervened, and despite the fact that if I fought that guy off, I'm almost positive she could have, I was glad that I was of assistance. After that, I was invited to her home, which baffled me. At that point, my parents had told me to never bring anyone back, even though I never left, but just as a precautionary measure, they hammered that point into my head. The fact that someone else trusted me enough to invite me to their home after less than a day of talking was confusing, but I needed shelter at the time, so I suppose I didn't mind going along with it.

The next day came, and we went to get food, walked around aimlessly for a bit, and then arrived at a huge building I hadn't explored the entirety of. After curiously searching for a few, we came across who we now know as Core, sitting behind a counter, intrigued by our entry. One small conversation later, and I would make the most important decision in my life so far, in the span of only a minute. As much as I felt that I rushed it, and it realized how impulsive it was, I can't say I will ever regret the choice I made. Plus, I had someone to experience it with. That was the biggest push in my final declaration, the fact that I was with someone else, I wasn't alone for once. It was a huge weakness of mine, to be so easily swayed out of fear I would stay on my lonesome, but it turned out better than I could ever imagine.

Participating in a tournament when I was so unfamiliar with battling anyone who wasn't a random feral in the woods, right after I just made a huge choice no less, I was clueless on how to handle it. I was even put into the first battle, the very first… I'm glad my luck improved at least a little bit after that day. Either way, Naru encouraging me, saying that I would do well, believing in me, that made all of it so much easier, more than I can describe. Someone was backing me up, someone was with me, and they even cheered me on. No wonder she always made me feel so warm, so comfortable. Not only has she been with me since I first decided to quit my brooding and try my best to change for the better, but she was so supportive, always making sure I was okay, always keeping an eye out, always just making me happy.

My whole body shuddered, despite the numbness ever so present. My eyes were still closed, but I felt tears build up.

After we were both accepted into the Nest, everything changed again, it was like diving into a whole new world. I had a mentor, one I was terrified of no less, living in a safe space, even making friends, despite the fact that I right next to two other pokemon I couldn't even face without shaking in fear. Yet, I kept going strongly, I kept at it, because I had support. I still had Naru, I got off on a good note with Kage, and I talked to Core, beginning to look up to him. I had pokemon around me that I got along with, I actually had friends… it was so weird. Not in a bad way by any means, but I was in no way used to it at all. A little far down the line, I learned that Naru had similar feelings, finding oddity in friendship, but she seemed in her element when she was being social, she was able to act so naturally around anyone, and I admired that. I began to admire her a lot more.

Our first mission came and went, yet another experience that I couldn't recreate in a million years. Everything going south, being taken by the Void and subsequently managing to get away, not just me, but Naru and Vero as well, all of it happened so fast, and it was certainly a chain of events that didn't need repeating. Either way, when all was said and done, and Naru ran over to me with the storm gone, nuzzling my head while I was barely conscious on the ground, it made me feel happy. Happier than I had ever been on my lonesome.

It felt like my eyes opened a bit, though I still couldn't see. I felt tears run down my cheeks, soaking into the dirt ground under me.

We had such a calming period of time after our first mission, it was peaceful, relaxed, and pleasant all around. Days went by, I was feeding Shiro every single one of them, I was trying to train Vero as best I could with my limited knowledge, I myself, was slowly improving, mentally and physically, they could be considered the most calming days I've spent since my parents were alive. Spending time with pokemon I came to know as friends, helping a small pokemon in need, and bettering myself in any way I could, it was a productive period for sure. Since then, we haven't had a stretch of time remotely similar. Rage went after Shiro, I was lucky enough to catch him in the act and get Shiro out of there, and begin to raise her in a way. Not long after we started, Naru had an odd dream, specifically about what happened to me when my parents were killed. I still have no idea what brought that vision to her, but it wasn't natural, not that it mattered much at this point, but it was a way for her to learn about it without me needing to go into detail, which was, if anything, helpful.

Next, Naru and I had to go to Myriad, where we started. It was a normal set of tasks to accomplish at first, we got them done at a very fast rate, and I even got to both teach a small lesson to Naru's old bullies, and see Shine again, so it was looking successful. It took a turn when we went to my old home, and I started looking around, reminiscing about my childhood life, before the two of us went outside to where I buried my guardians. I totally lost it on the spot. I have no idea what caused such an uprise in my emotions after visiting them so many times prior, but it happened regardless, I couldn't hold them back. Just like every other time I was upset, or worried, Naru was there to help me. The way she held me when that happened, and the comfort I felt, even though I was pouring out an ocean of tears, just like so many other times, there was no way to describe it. I didn't want to leave her side, no matter what. I can't put it into words, how much Naru has helped me, or how much I care about her, how much I appreciate her concern for me, how much I cherish being around her. There was only one way to wrap it all into one sentence.

I felt the tears erupting from my eyes become more plentiful, though I still couldn't move effectively enough to wipe them away. Reflection was always such a double edged sword, but worth it in the end. Thinking about everyone secured the miniscule amount of sanity I had left, and no matter how many times I was burned, sliced, beaten, abused, no matter what happens to me in here, the thought that everyone else is okay, that I'm taking the brunt of this, as opposed to the others, that was enough for me.

 _Are you finally breaking? I've never seen you cry before, maybe Luna has, but not me._ I had nearly forgot about the delphox, still spectating me. She must have been using a different method to do it though, as I still couldn't see the purple light she would usually cast in here. It was very possible that she just read through all of my thoughts, in which case, I didn't really care. _Out of everything, I'm surprised you aren't holding out some ridiculous fantasy that someone is going to come save you, that's the usual reaction from most we hold here._

I paused, letting the tears coming from my eyes further soak the ground I was laying on.

 _Nobody is saving me._ I communicated back to the delphox, for the first time in who knows how long. _I know that already. Nobody even know this place exists, nobody other than the ones within it. Someone saving me is a wild fantasy that can't come true. You're either going to keep me alive for years, and I won't talk, or you'll give it up and kill me. Either way, I'm not assisting you._ I refused to ever say anything to them, and that wasn't changing, no matter how many flashbacks Luna gave me.

 _How admirable. Then it looks like you'll be Luna's toy for a long time. I've learned everything I needed to from you, so I'll be heading somewhere else, but she's not going anywhere. Not until you spill._

The notion that I was going to be used as a "toy" made me shudder, but it didn't matter anymore. I was committed to silence.

\

 _I'll never say anything. Maybe I'll even find a way to kill myself while she's trying to get information out of me._ I half-threatened. It was sad that the only form of a threat I could make was that of suicide, but it was something. Arceus knows, if I was pushed, I wouldn't hesitate to go through with my threat.

 _I'll be sure to tell her that._

With that, I didn't hear anything else from the delphox that had been tormenting me for the longest time. She was gone for the moment. I relaxed my mind, as I tried to do at all other times while stuck here. After looking back on so many events, I was blank, and lightheaded. It wasn't uncommon for me to randomly pass out while I was here, for various reasons. Losing consciousness was always a way for me to get away from the physical pain for a bit, so I welcomed it.

My mind wandered to my parents, as it always has occasionally. Sometimes, I re-played some of our happy memories in my head, almost vividely enough to hear their voices. I could still picture them perfectly, their image would never fade from memory. If I try really hard, I can project what they would sound like in my head, and imitate it mentally. It was so close to actually being able to hear them talk again, so close to being with them like I was so long ago.

"Kuro?"

My ears painfully perked, but I was still unable to see anything. I heard a voice, just like my dad's, extremely close to my ear. My body twitched all over, and my breathing picked up again. I'm not sure why I nearly went crazy, it was obvious what was happening.

"Try to calm down dear."

It was my mother's this time, as soothing as ever. Just like my dad, she sounded so close, almost as if she was in my head. Though, it was clear as day why they sounded like that. I was losing it. I thought about them a bunch, and now I was hearing voices. I wasn't aware that I was so close to going crazy, but it seemed as if I had arrived at that point. I was back to trembling, attempting to slow my breathing down. _I'm going insane…_

"I know you can't talk to us, but listen up, nice and close." My dad's voice played again, causing the tears that were leaking before to only intensify. I could handle thinking about them, hearing their voices, almost like they were trying to talk to me, this was almost too much. I tried my best to calm myself, and do as the voice said. Even if I was going insane, it was better than being all alone in an empty head. After some effort, I calmed my body, holding still once more.

"Your mind is tricking you in more ways than one right now. I probably don't need to tell you that, but I want you to keep it in mind. You're having some bad thoughts, you can't listen to them." My mother's voice chimed once more. My head was devoid of logic at this point, I really was losing it.

"You think death is the way this is going to end, that your time here is only going to get worse and worse until your body eventually can't take it. I disagree." The voices playing in my head alternated between my parents. My lightheaded feeling slowly but surely increased in severity.

"You'll find a way out, you always manage to find a way to make it all work out." My emotions were running rampant. Hearing the voices of both of my parents, hallucination or not, it was driving me insane, truly making my mind go blurry. _I haven't seen them in eight years… more than that at this point… they wouldn't know everything that's happened since then, they have every right to assume I died right after them…_

"You've grown so much since we last saw you, it's hard to even recognize you! Though you sort of evolved… so that's hard to begin with!" My dad's blind optimism was always a great defining trait for him. It was reckless at times, but still enjoyable to see for everyone. _I guess even in my head he would act the same way…_

"I was always worried that you would have a hard time socializing because of how sheltered you were, but you did amazing! The first pokemon you met is really fond of you, you must be a natural!" My mom would always try and match dad's enthusiasm, but never quite got to that level. It was funny to watch them go back and forth all the time, with their varying levels of energy. _In a way… it's almost like Naru and I._

"We met through the Nest, and it's awesome to see you participating there too! Even if we sort of… wanted you to avoid it at first, you found your way there anyway, which means it must be fate!" 'Fate,' dad loved that word. He was so interested in myths and legends, fate was just another phenomenon that none of us believed in, other than him. Sometimes mom would say he sounded crazy, talking about wanting to meet legendaries one day, but also liked that part about him. He didn't let logic hold back his aspirations, even if he did sound like a lunatic trying to go through with them.

"You've also had someone with you the whole way through, someone very special to you." Mom wanted me to find someone to talk to when I was younger, but out of what I assumed to be fear, kept me cooped up at home. I didn't blame them for it, if they knew everything about this part of the world, I can see why they wouldn't even want me to leave home. I couldn't say I felt any different about Shiro, I hated having her out of my sight at times, unless I knew she was already with someone else. Now that I had someone I could consider a daughter, I understood that notion more than ever.

"Aaaaaand, who knows? Maybe you'll start your own family with them! Wouldn't that be fantastic!?" Another worry my parents had, primely my dad. That I would meet someone if I left home, and want to leave with them as opposed to coming back. It was silly to think that I would ever want to just up and leave them, but that sounded like a normal worry for a parent to have, so I didn't question it. Though, I felt myself fluster a little bit after reading more into what my father had just implied in my head. I'm sure I was blushing from said implications, but I couldn't feel the normal heat I would when that normally happens.

"I'd say you already have a small family there, but why not make it official? It would be good for you!" Now my mind was getting even blurrier. Even considering all of that… it was enough to stop me from talking, assuming I would be able to talk in the first place. I wasn't sure why, but I couldn't help it, those thoughts always flustered me, I just didn't think that, here of all places, I would start blushing from something, let alone from something that's spanning from me losing my head…

"You would like doing that, wouldn't you?" Dad's voice was so clear in my head when he said that. "Wouldn't it make you happy?" The notion of having a family, of course it would. The other pokemon I would be starting said family with being Naru… Of course it would. Being able to live peacefully again, with none of these evident Void problems dominating my life, that's what I wanted more than anything else. Maybe after that… I can even have a family, one to extend off of what I already have. That… really would make me happy.

"But that can't happen right now." _I knew that already…_ "It can only take place after you get out of here. After you reunite with your loved ones." _Loved ones…_

"You'll for sure find a way out, you can't give in so easily. We never gave up, and we ended up with a family we're proud to have! Don't throw the rest of your life away now by giving up, as long as you keep on fighting, you'll find a way out, and find a way back to your friends, back to everyone."

I took a second to reflect. _I'm going insane… Whatever is talking to me… It's clearly not my parents, they're gone. They aren't coming back, my mind is fading away and this is my body's way of trying to keep me conscious, that has to be it. But… everything they're saying, everything that their voices are portraying, even if it's not them… they have a point. It has a point…_

Some time passed, and I didn't hear anything else, it looked like I was done having my little episode. The fur on my face was wet with tears, I could still barely move, my body burned like nothing else, everything was just like it was before, even my lightheadedness.

But… I was calm.

I was breathing evenly, despite the burning and everything else, I was stable, I was calm. Maybe it was hearing my parents' voices again, even if they weren't real. Maybe it was the newfound clarity in my mind, maybe it was me just getting closer to passing out, I had no idea. The only thing I knew was that I was calm. It's almost like, I was disconnected emotionally, I didn't feel sad, scared, anxious, anything I was feeling prior to the conversation I had with my imaginary guardians. I had a goal in my mind now, a single goal, and I wanted to accomplish it through whatever actions necessary. I wanted to get out of here. That's my goal.

I had no idea when, how, or if it was even possible, but that was my goal.

I felt my body drift, almost as if it was moving on its own, signaling that I was about to close consciousness. Despite that though, I felt odd, my body was light, much more so than usual. Most likely a signal that I was about to pass out.

The last thought in my head before I went under was how loose my body felt.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Another chapter done on time! Hoorah! This doesn't happen often, so celebratory dance! I hope everyone is doing well out there! And uh… you see, when I have nothing to announce, I never know what to put in these things, soooo hi!

…..

Wow, this is awkward.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me any reviews, pms, the like, I love all of them! They always put a huge smile on my face! Don't be shy, I don't bite! Not from criticism, not from normal conversation! Thank you to my beta reader for cleaning up all of my chapters to make sure they don't suck! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	42. Retaliation

**Naru**

It's been a decent while since I was assigned a mission without discussion first, but I wasn't about to complain much. Getting assigned missions was strange, but I imagined that Core didn't have the most faith in me when it came to making rational choices at the moment, and I can't say I blame him. That being said, I was off on my own, making a small delivery, about four miles out. I wasn't even going to a town or anything, as far as I knew, I was going to a single pokemon that lives in a tent. In the usual bag I had thrown around my neck, alongside my scarf, I had medicine, a vial of a special painkiller to heal burn wounds. I had no idea something like that was even possible, typically, using natural remedies, ice, and water were the only ways to cure a burn effectively, but hey, leave it up to Force and Scythe to make something like this. Those two were certified geniuses at this point, being able to create such effective types of medication.

It was wrapped up in a small cloth, in order to make sure it didn't pierce anything in the bag, and since I received it like that, I have no idea what it looks like. Not that it matters much, but it was just a thought that went through my head. To be perfectly honest, thinking about any type of burn wound was the last thing I wanted on my mind, so I tried my best to ignore it.

After I walked for about two miles north-west of the Nest, the area I was in became much more dry, with less ponds and trees in the usual endless fields. The neutral air still surrounded me, and was no more or less pleasant than usual. The cold season was just starting, so it seemed like the weather would be stagnant like this for a while, which I didn't mind at all.

I don't think I had ever gone off in this direction before, usually I would always have a feel for an area I've been in before, but where I was now, I felt no such thing. Exploring a new area would usually excite me a little bit, but I couldn't will myself into it right now. It was simply something to note for later, and that was that.

Being all alone out here, walking miles out to deliver something, the silence that accompanied the trip, it was oddly calming. It created a contrast to what I was doing before, trying to balance my own crumbling emotions with talking to a bunch of pokemon as normal, but out here, I didn't need to worry about that, which was something, even if a bit small. _I'll take what I can get right now._

A decent amount of time spent lifting my paws through short grass brought me to my destination, marked on a map that I, for the most part, memorized. Not too far away, just as I was informed, I spotted a very small tent, maybe large enough for one or two pokemon. _How do these pokemon even contact the Nest in the first place..?_ I brushed the silly thought aside.

A large gust of wind blew behind me, making the short grass brush the tops of my paws lightly, a decent feeling. The tent in my vision slowly grew larger as I came closer, right until I was outside the small entrance of the yellow shelter. I cleared my throat quietly. "Hello? Is anyone there?" I inquired calmly.

A few seconds passed, and the entrance to the tent shifted open silently, holding a tyrogue, They looked rather young, but not to the extent of being a child. "Hello?" The male tyrogue looked at me, observing, until his eyes arrived upon the symbol on my side, hardly visible because of the color of my fur, but still evident nonetheless. "Oh! You're a Raven! I've been waiting!" He sounded excited, but then winced.

I bent my head down and let my bag fall to the grassy earth. "I'm here to deliver you some medicine. For burn wounds, right?" I asked, calmly once more. I would usually be more eccentric when delivering items, but I wasn't really in the right state of mind.

The tyrogue giddily nodded. "Yes ma'am!" He winced once more. "Kind of… got burned by a feral, both of my legs. It's been hard to walk ever since."

I nodded in response this time, and gave him a small, half-forced smile. "Well hopefully things will get better for you after you use this." I reached a paw into my bag, and grabbed the vial in between my digits, a bit uneasily, not used to lifting things with my paws. _Kuro is great and carrying things in his paws, he can even write. That must have taken a ton of effort._

I ended up spacing out a bit while holding the wrapped up vial, letting my thoughts wander too much. "Um… Miss?" I shook my head to the voice of my client.

"Sorry about that, here you go." I placed the cloth on the ground right in front of the tent, and he happily picked it up with a large smile. "Injecting it into your neck should heal your burn wounds quickly, after that, you'll be good as new." I managed to get myself to smile again.

"Thank you! I really appreciate it!" He bowed his head appreciatively, happy to have the solution to his burned leg, which was out of my sight.

"Not a problem, really. Anything else you need?" I wouldn't have minded staying out here a bit longer, so I figured I might as well ask.

"Nothing else! Thank you!" His enthusiasm brought some old memories of me back, making me smile a bit more naturally than before. I simply nodded and began to dip my head down to pick my bag up again.

I didn't get my head all the way down before I was socked in the cheek from somewhere out of my sight, causing me to yelp in surprise, and a large ache traveled through my head. I slid across the ground on my side, before steadying myself, hopping off of the ground and landing on my paws. I heard a yell similar to mine from the tent, coming from the tyrogue, who had just closed themself inside of it. I brought my eyes to the source of the attack, and they widened involuntarily.

A rather disturbing laugh invaded my ears, giving me a brief chill, and distracting me from the small drops of blood gathering on my inner lip, the earlier hit causing me to bite into it a little. It wasn't a voice I wished to hear anytime soon, and combined with the force of the attack applied alongside it, I shivered a bit.

"How did that feel? Just like all that time ago?" My wide eyes hardened to a glare. For a split second, I was afraid. Luckily, a second is all it lasted. No matter what taunting was thrown at me, I knew that things were different now, Kuro did a good job proving that to me back in Myriad. _But still… that hurt a ton._ "Cut the fire in your eyes, put on that look of fear that you always used to!"

I ignored the repressed memories raising up, staying calm. "If that felt just like it did all the way back then, wow, you really haven't improved at all." I got into a defensive stance, confident.

"Where's the snarky attitude coming from?" He cackled. "Did you develop arrogance over the weeks it's been? You were cowering last time we met."

"Now I know for a fact you're nothing to worry about, so I have no need to be afraid." I shot back, unmoving from my stance. "After your ribs healed, did you go back to bullying pokemon younger than you?"

He shook his head and made his mouth curve into a disgusting smile. "I tried to find you again, I wanted to show you terror, just like I did in the past. Sadly, I couldn't find you, but a positive development took place instead."

"Too bad I'm done being scared of you. Finding me would have changed nothing." I was tempted to attack him, but that would have been reckless. I didn't have a very clear head at the moment, but it was enough to determine what the right move was, staying patient rather than letting my impulses control me.

"Then all I need to do is re-invent that feeling within you. It shouldn't be hard, not with the way I am now." She took a step closer, and I tilted my head. Sure his punch didn't exactly tickle, it actually hurt quite a lot, but that alone wasn't enough to scare me. It made me curious though.

"I don't see that being possible." I took a step closer as well. "Did you get your act together and actually train yourself up?" Seeing any amount of diligence from him wasn't exactly expected.

Just as I thought, he shook his head and laughed with a dark tone. "I had the fortunate opportunity to find that leafeon that beat the crap out of you later on, by myself. She gave me an offer of sorts."

I didn't like where this was going, but I figured that I would get the full story before attacking him. "You trusted someone who broke bones in your body the same day?" _Considering his intellect, I wouldn't doubt it._

"She was quite persuasive, she gave me an offer, and I accepted it. I now feel like a whole different being, for the simple price of helping her with some work at an organization." he began slowly walking towards me, and I resisted growling.

"You're telling me you joined the Void? For a bribe?" _What kind of stupidity can you have…_ "Do you even know what they do? What you got yourself into? Do you know anything?"

"A good bribe, one that allows me to go after you. Not only you, but your partner as well." His grin grew, and I extended my claws involuntarily. "To answer your questions, no clue. But I don't care, all I care about is going after both you and him."

I scoffed. "Such a one track mind… Why even hold such a grudge? What did I do to you? If anything, I should be the one with the lust to beat you up, all I did was submit to being a victim to your violent actions." I truly didn't get why he hated me with the passion he did, I understood his disdain towards Kuro, but towards me, it just didn't make sense.

"I never liked you, haven't even considered it. So I pushed you further down whenever I could." He didn't have much of a tone anymore, he seemed devoid of emotion at the moment. "Then you vanish for years, hardly leave your home, and come back, completely different than before. That leafeon… she broke me with a swipe of her tail. I was useless, and yet you step up, and perform against her, without breaking, and you survived. I couldn't take you being stronger than me, not a wimpy little glaceon who cowered in fear before. I resent you for that." I paused, absorbing everything that he just said.

"I didn't want to be that glaceon, the one from back then. Defenseless, scared and hopeless. So I changed. It took everything I had, but I did it." I sighed, annoyed. "The fact that you're willing to kill others along with the Void over a grudge you gain out of… what, jealousy? That's idiotic."

"I don't care about your opinion, I just want to crack your skull over my knee." He put his hands up, in a fighting stance of sorts. "I already got to pay a visit to your partner." He smirked evilly, and my body froze, my claws ripped into the ground, and my growling was evident. "The Void healed it off of me, but he's vicious when he's entrapped. The guy ripped half off the skin off my arm even when he was restrained, but I got to sock his head into a wall either way, so I'm satisfied until I go back, where I'll beat on him more."

That was all I needed to hear. Whatever mercy I had to hold myself back, it was gone.

I dashed at him, straight on, ripping a small patch of dirt from the ground just where my paw picked up for the initial lunge. My eyes traced his body, and I slid to the side, avoiding a jab he prepared in advance. I rammed my head into his side, entailing a grunt, though his body was unmoving. He brought his fist down and slammed it into the opposite cheek he hit before, sending me along the ground farther than last time, the ache worsening.

I took in a quick breath, fixing myself once more, though I nearly tripped as soon as stood, I was able to correct myself. "How does it feel to be on the receiving end? I punched the damn umbreon right in the skull, and he didn't budge. Isn't it frustrating!?" he laughed hysterically, sounding like a lunatic. I spit out the blood stored in my mouth from earlier, and crouched down.

 _He hurts… and he's quick…_

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. _That was dumb of me… I shouldn't have sprinted at him like that._ I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. _He's seen Kuro… he knows where he is… I'm not letting him leave without telling me. Even if I have to beat it out of him._

"You're weak compared to me now, you're nothing to me!" He began running towards me. I stood still and waited, letting my maw fill itself with icy buildup. I felt my emotions bubbling up, I couldn't help them from rising in intensity. Standing in front of this guy, just thinking about the fact that he hurt Kuro, it was enough to make me want to break an ice shard over his skull, and repeat the action until his face was covered in blood. I was lucky that I had such a strong grip on my feelings, otherwise I might have no been able to keep my head cool. _Maybe it's more lucky in his favor than mine…_

The hitmonchan berading me arrived directly in front, sliding on the ground and preparing to strike me again. His right hand began to glow, and in the form a fist, it flew at me just as it did before. I rolled out of the way, avoiding said attack, but he wasn't open to be attacked yet, so I hopped back a bit, creating a gap between us again. He turned and dashed at me once more, this time tossing a bright, glowing orb that he formed in his left hand in a steady line at me. I sidestepped the orb, and as he approached, I ducked under his next swing and blasted his stomach with an orb of frozen water, point blank. Like before, his body stayed sturdy, but his facial expressions and grunts told me that he was feeling the attacks I gave. _Not sure how much he can deal with, I'll have to hit him harder._

I slowly backed up again, waiting to see what he would do next. The fact that he was eating my attacks, barely budging was just a little bit intimidating, but I wasn't going to back down. Intimidation meant nothing if he couldn't follow up on it, and so far, it didn't seem as if he could. As I predicted, he turned to me again, and began running like before. Instead of backing up and dodging like before, I froze the crown on my head and sprinted towards him full speed, obviously catching him off guard. I jumped and slammed my crown into his chest, making him fall back and slide across the ground, the conflicting momentum of the two of us making him really feel that attack.

Getting a bit overzealous, I ran at him again while he was on the ground, taking a deep breath and firing an ice beam at him before he could move. As I should have expected though, he blocked it with one of his arms, and resisted the freezing factor that the attack would usually have. Right after, he rushed at me, and missed an uppercut, me sliding out of the way again. Right after his missed attack, he slammed his other curled-up hand onto my head, pushing me to the ground harshly. My head clashed with the earth below, making my ears ring, and getting a groan out of me. As he was standing over me, he lifted his arm again, ready to pummel me into the ground. I flipped onto my back and released a shadow ball right into his head, causing him to flinch and making him back up a few feet once more. I pushed myself up, facing him once more, glaring with an aching head I was trying to ignore. _Why is it always my head..?_

I shook the aforementioned cranium, re-focusing myself. Much to my surprise, he let out a nasty chuckle. "How do you like it? I can break each and every one of your bones with next to no effort if I wanted! I'm surprised you're even conscious after those hits to the head!" _Because you didn't hit the right spot idiot…_

I stayed silent, not wanting to talk to him unless it was an interrogation to figure out where Kuro is. Instead, I built pressure under one of my forepaws, waiting for him to inevitable rush again. Just as it popped into my mind, he did just that, sprinting at me full force. His proximity closed in on me, until I could reach my paw out and touch him. Rather than do that though, I released a pent up shockwave into his body, knocking the breath out of him. He began coughing, and seizing the opportunity, I lunged at him, jamming one of my claws into his shoulder. I headbutted his skull stright on, and he began to stumble, but didn't end up falling over, bringing his other arm up, and wrapping his hand around my neck. Hard.

He held me away from his body, and I struggled to breathe. I felt the exact spot where he was putting pressure on my windpipe, cutting me off from taking any effective breaths. I struggled, unable to free myself immediately, and in realization of this, the hitmonchan before me cackled.

"Did you think that would be enough? No no no, I'm beyond that!" He tightened his grip, and whatever noise that could be released from my mouth left me, a quiet and pained grunt. "Don't you see how amazing the Void's resources are? Look what they did to me! I can crush you in the center of my hand, after making sure you know how helpless you are against me." I swayed one of my hind legs, not quite being able to connect with anything.

"Where's that new glaceon? The one that isn't a weak coward? It doesn't exist! You're just like you were before!" He laughed harder, making sure as much air as possible was prevented from entering my body. "I know what it is, you're still the same, aren't you? You never changed, you started talking to your partner. He's the one giving you the illusion that you're someone different now. On your own, you'll always be this. Weak, frail, and useless." I began to feel lightheaded.

His voice was light, but I could make out what he was saying. He had merit to believe that I'm the same, that the only reason I act different is because Kuro was with me, and that the only difference between me now, and me as a child is my physical ability. Nothing else has changed, it's just me relying on someone else, while hiding my own weakness. To him, I was the same, nearly broken glaceon from my childhood. Maybe to an extent it was true, that I had been relying on Kuro. I couldn't deny that, he helped me a ton, probably way more than he knows.

 _But to say I haven't changed, to say that I'm still the same as I was right after I lost my adoptive family, that's a false statement._

Through my lack of air, I kicked my other hind paw forward again, lightly managing to brush it against one of his arms, the one that was holding me up. As soon as that slight contact took place, I extended a claw, and swiftly dug it into that arm. He gasped in surprise, and I felt his grip on me loosen a bit. Taking advantage on the situation, I lifted one of my forepaws to that same arm, and began to freeze it over. Noticing what I was doing, the hitmonchan pulled back, releasing me in the process. As soon as I was free, I took in a huge gulp of air, and spit out a spontaneous hyper beam right at him, connecting at point blank, and sending him back with a scream.

After I landed on the ground and my attack petered out, I stumbled and brought a forepaw to my throat, taking in short, fast breaths. My legs were shaking a little, my neck pulsing and burning. I coughed a few times, before shaking my head and looking forward, standing strongly once again. A decent distance away, the hitmonchan slowly stood up, blood leaking down both of him arms now. He angrily glared at me, obviously irritated and annoyed.

"Why don't you just give in and die? You're fighting back like you can win, and seeing as I'm still much stronger than you, you're finished!" There was only one word I could use to describe everything he's been doing, one word that can sum up everything. _Naive._

I took a second to fully catch my breath. "Then let me show you what I can do." I closed my eyes, releasing a cold breath, visible in the air. "Even by myself, I'll show you." My body began to emit a dull light, pale blue, nearly matching my fur. " My coat of fur slowly solidified, my body looking as if it was made of ice fully and completely. "I can easily stop you!"

I sprinted at him this time, taking an offensive position. The hitmonchan didn't seem to know how to react, so he stood still and rose his hands with a wince. As soon as I made it within scratching distance, I ducked my head low, and closed my eyes again.

Above me, the hitmonchan wrapped his hands around one another. "Just lay down and die!" He swung both of his hands down, aiming for the back of my head. I stayed calm, and opened my eyes, shattering the ice all over myself into small, pointed shards. Less than a millisecond later, I pushed a shockwave towards the ground, causing a burst of wind to rise up around my body, and a small area around the two of us. All of the small shards I had created shot up to the hitmonchan at breakneck speeds, multiple piercing his chest and arms. He dropped his attack and yelped, and I brought my head up, slamming it into his gut as hard as I could. He yelled louder this time, and flew back, landing face up on the ground a few feet away.

I immediately ran over to him and stepped on his now-blodied upper body, getting another shout from him. He was breathing quickly through his teeth, trying to hold back from yelling any longer it seemed. His body was unorthodoxly twitching, not used to being pierced as I just did. His arms were a bloody mess at this point, small bits of ice lining each and every leaking opening in them. I couldn't have been more accurate with what I pulled, hitting his arms and disabling him from grabbing me again, and also getting them all over his chest, enough to cause extreme pain, but not enough to fatally wound him.

I stared downward, right above him, and he just looked back, reverting to the terrified gaze he had all the way back in Myriad. _And he says I haven't changed._

The two of us stared one another down for a few seconds, the battle was over now. I had taken him down with one well placed move. He not only looked as if he was in extreme pain just by his expression, but he also held a hint of uncertainty, confusion. "H-How did you do that..?" He coughed right after talking, and groaned once more, albeit not as loudly as previously. "How d-did you knock me down like that..?"

I sighed, feeling more annoyed than angry now. Don't get me wrong, I was still PISSED. But I was even more so annoyed at him for the way he acted. "A better question for you. Why did you think a bunch of chemicals or whatever you were given would just make you invincible?" I gave no attempt hide the growing animosity in my tone.

He stayed silent, just staring up at me. My paw was still on his chest, where I could feel him trembling. "You're stronger than me, sure. That's all you are though. You've never been in a real fight to the death before, I have multiple times." Talking like this while looking down at the same one who put me through so much torment years ago felt… oddly satisfying. I hoped I wasn't becoming a sadist. "Why rush at me like that so hastily? You had every advantage, every resource to better yourself, and as soon as you were given… whatever they gave you, the first thing in your head was to come straight for me, and look how that turned out." I felt the sudden want to push down on his chest harder, but I held myself back. I wasn't supposed to find enjoyment in others' pain.

"I-I can't believe that you can outmatch me… I-I can't…" He said in a pained voice. I sighed again. _What did you think? That working for the Nest for as long as I have been at this point taught me baking necessities?_

"Well I did, and I always will." My eyes formed an intense glare. "You're going to answer the questions I ask you now, and if you refuse, you'll regret it." I was tempted, once more, to increase the pressure on his chest, but like before, I resisted.

He locked his fearful stare with my overtly aggressive one, and gulped, before nodding. I took a second to think of what exactly I wanted to ask. There was one thing that was evident on my mind. "You said you hurt Kuro." Me saying that out loud made all of my temptations push forward, but I put a wall before them. "Tell me where Kuro is. Right. Now."

He gulped again, and looked up at me in terror, shaking more than before. "I-I can't do that…"

Right after those words left his mouth, I felt the wall I put up ever so slowly crumble, and streaks of light were shining on through. I began slowly putting more pressure on his chest, making him yell out in protest again. "Tell. Me." I began pushing down more, causing him to begin panting along with his erratic movement.

"I-I… C-Can't!" He spoke between heavy breaths, and I felt my psyche snapping, I felt the wall crashing down into a million pieces.

I drew a claw out from my other forepaw, and leaned closer to him, right above his face. I made the icy tips of it trace the front of his neck slowly, causing him to let out what almost sounded like a whimper. "Tell me… Do you want to die?" I asked with a malicious tone. "You're willing to kill others just for some petty revenge, you were about to go off and kill innocents." I drew my claw closer, digging at the skin over his neck a little. "Do you want to feel the pain you meant for them?"

His levels of panic and distress multiplied, obvious from his trembling, his face, and his shaky, weak voice. "I-I…" He wasn't able to get any words out, which was further aggravating me.

"Tell me before I dig my claw into your throat!" I yelled, getting a flinch from him on the ground. I was very quickly losing my patience, and I had never killed anyone in the past, but to be perfectly honest, I was having a very hard time holding my leg back from finishing the job right now. I had never felt the want to kill someone, but a combination of so many things made the act of killing someone seem almost… practical to me. I really was more unstable than I thought I was.

"H-H-Hold on! I-I really can't!" He shook his head, creating small scratches on his neck from my claws. "I-I don't know where! T-They won't tell me!"

"Then how did you go there to hurt him!?"

"T-They knocked me out when they took me there! E-Every time I go there and leave, t-they knock me out!" I grit my teeth, unsure if I should believe him or not. "C-Come on! W-Why would I lie if you have me down l-like this!?"

My foreleg was shaking, tempting me to slit his throat, but I resisted, and drew it the slightest bit further away from his neck. It was still extremely close, but no longer making contact. "Do they do that with all recruits? Not give information that important?" I tried to sound calm but it was obvious I was far from it.

"Y-Yes, the only ones who know are the a-admins." He gulped, likely noticing the lack of pressure I was enforcing as compared to a few moments ago.

"How much do you know about the Void? Anything?" I wanted something to come from this, even if the realization that I wasn't any closer to finding Kuro was heart-wrenching to me.

"N-Not much, all I know is that they have someone being mind controlled, and t-that the leader has a grudge against your boss." That statement made me think. "I-I don't know what though! A-All I know is that they aren't fond of one another."

I stared blankly at him, wondering about the bad blood between Myra and Luna. It had to be more than just the opposing organizations, otherwise there would be no need to mention it. "If any of this is false, you'll be a priority target to us. I'll make sure of that." I removed my claw, and un-pinned him from the ground. _I don't think I'll get anything useful from him._

He immediately crawled away backwards, never switching directions from facing me. He very slowly stood up with another pained groan, and was breathing heavily, clearly injured. I spit out a bit of blood, coming from the cut inside of my mouth. Luckily it didn't feel like anything more than that, a cut, but it still made its presence known. "If you go back and hurt Kuro any more, or anyone for that matter, anyone at all, and we meet again, I'm killing you on the spot."

He flinched form my words and just turned away, beginning to run. I didn't avert my eyes until he ran passed all of the dry greenery, leaving a train of crimson liquid behind him. Soon enough, he was no longer in my sight.

I paused, standing still for an indecipherable amount of time, and then I turned to look at the small tent, the reason I was here in the first place. _He knew I was going to be here… So did the one who took Kuro, she knew where he would be. There's really only one way how though… and we need to do something about it as soon as we can._

I checked up on the tyrogue, who was frightened, but ultimately okay. He gave me a thank you and I bid him farewell, heading back to the Nest. Not much time had passed, in all honesty, that all happened in about forty five minutes, not long at all for a mission to go through. I suppose that's standard for deliveries though.

I walked back to the Nest in solidarity, holding back tears.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Got it finished much quicker than I anticipated! Had a lot of free time, which is nice! Though, if any of the next updates are exceptionally slow, I apologize, but a hurricane ripped through the plant that makes the meds I use to regulate ADD and Anxiety, so I have a verrrry hard time keeping my focus while writing without them. I can do it, but sometimes it takes me like twenty minutes to type out half a paragraph, and if that keeps up, then it's going to be a slog to get through the whole chapter. I did the last half of this one without them, and I think I worked at a decent rate, so it's a good sign at least!  
Thank you to everyone who has sent a PM, a review, the like. I really appreciate every single bit of it, it helps me more than I can describe! Really! Not to mention I love just reading them and interacting with you all! Thank you to my beta reader for cleaning up all of my chapters nicely! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	43. Fully Shrouded

**Kai**

There was heavy confusion all around me. It seemed like on both sides, surrounding me, there was nothing but clutter and worry. I never considered myself a double agent by any means, as I never did anything to benefit the Void, the only thing I did was submit to missions when I was asked to, which, thanks to my position within the Nest, wasn't too often. I did however, work to benefit the Nest and its Ravens, so I more considered myself on that side of the conflict. As of now though, none of that mattered, I was being hammered from both sides, overwhelmed.

The Void never, ever had emergencies, or even slight concerns for safety. They were too secure, and too powerful of a group for anyone to just waltz in and cause any need for worry. Yet, earlier today, I saw something I don't think I ever had before, not since I started my sliced life between the Nest and the Void. I saw Aven with an angered expression, he was annoyed, or irritated. I had never seen him put on a single emotion, so that was intriguing, and the most likely cause is that something ended up going down at the Void, whatever that may be. I was told specifically to keep an eye out, for what exactly, wasn't specified. Part of me was glad that the Void had some kind of trouble, something that was bugging them in some way shape or form, or something that was causing even the slightest problem. Then there's the other side of the issue, I might be tasked with dealing with said problem in some volume, which I wasn't exactly willing to put my effort into. If it does come to that,I won't have a choice in the matter, but as of now, all I could do is hope that the issue won't spread any further as to make it to my long list of tasks.

That wasn't even the end of it though. Not only the Void, but the Nest had multiple problems as of now, two of which I was familiar with, not knowing exclusively how to handle either one. The first one affected me directly, that being, Kuro was nowhere to be seen for a decent while now. The excuse that he was sent off on another mission right after the first without the chance to come back was a weak guise, the truth was easily within my grasp. He was taken to the Void after he was captured in a town eleven or so miles out. That much to me, was clear. I knew their protocol, I knew exactly how they operated, they wanted him alive for some reason, so they would take him back until he had fulfilled whatever purpose they had for him. The process in which they would get him to do so… I would rather not think about that part.

Kuro being taken wasn't the only thing going on within the Nest, but this one was kept locked up, as to not cause panic. One of the other leaders, that being Xen, a heliolisk, hadn't seen one of his pupils in a long while. Apparently, it wasn't unusual for him to try and skip out on training, and then afterwards say that the punishment was well worth the break. Because of that, he didn't find it too odd that he missed a day or two, and then the third session was skipped, causing that assumption to warp into worry. Some Ravens went to his room in order to check up on him, and after needing to break down the door, there was nothing but a rotting corpse of a manectric.

It was shocking to say the least, to the ones who found him, and everyone who knows about the issue now, but more than shocking, it was confusing. It made me wonder if certain Ravens were traitors to the Nest, other than Aven and I. We were under strict ruling not to cause trouble, as to not blow our cover, so I highly, highly doubt Aven did this. At least, I doubt that he directly did anything, that's not to say he didn't cause it. It wasn't too hard to put the pieces together, Blitz's partner was Lucas, also mysteriously absent. Based on the little I knew about the gabite, it wasn't exactly farfetched to think that Aven manipulated him into bending to the Void's will, or maybe worse. As quiet and stoic as he was, Aven knew how to get under someone else's skin. All it took was one well thought out sentence, and he could sway you in the blink of an eye. It was almost scary how charismatic both him and Luna are, it's a trait that couldn't have given to worse pokemon.

The fact that there was a Raven here so able and ready to kill one of their own on a dime like that, it was unnerving. The position I was in already had chaos surrounding it, tacking an unforeseen murder onto all of it did nothing but further clutter everything that was going over in my mind. Despite this, I was oddly calm. Worried, but calm nonetheless. From all of past experiences, keeping my head, my thoughts even and clear, that's how I've survived as long as I have. By not panicking, by making sure I know what to do at all times, or at least know what to try. To say the least, the very minimum, I was used to the pressure.

Despite my demeanor being stable, I couldn't stop my growing concern for the situation slowly growing out of proportion. A lot of that sprouted from knowing that Kuro is in possession of the Void, and that he must be going in and out of hell over there. Shard had been trying to pinpoint my sudden change in attitude from a while back, and the conclusion she continued to arrive at is that I care much more for Kuro than I initially expected to. That alone bothered me, caring for someone who works for an organization that, I may want to agree with, but need to stay away from acting on any of my impulses, wasn't good for me. I don't know what exactly he has been through, only generally, but I know his hatred towards the Void grows with each passing day, maybe each passing second, especially now that he's stuck with them. His negative feelings would all extend to me too, had he been aware that I'm working on both sides, regardless of whether it's my choice or not. Even so, seeing him grow, not only as a fighter, but as a pokemon as well, it made me care about him. As much as it confused me, I couldn't help it. I hadn't ever cared about any of my other proteges during my time spent as a mentor in the Nest, not like I do with him, he's the only one I've ever been concerned for to this degree.

This problem wasn't limited to him either, the next one is Shard, I began to care for her a lot too. Once more, before this, I never grew attached to any Ravens, for obvious reasons, and I have no ideas what gave Shard a sudden interest in me, even after we had both been here for a decent while, she had never shown it before recently. Regardless, she bothered me, tried to talk to me at all times, and even tried to help me needlessly. At first, I saw all of it as an annoyance, nothing more, but that didn't take long to change after taking a look at my situation again. I was having many problems, and she took note of them, and attempted to help with them as best she could. Even if her methods of doing do were… questionable at times, I had to appreciate what she was doing, and who she is as a whole. It pained me to seperate myself from everyone like I've been trying to do, but the alternative is much worse, so I had to keep with it, no matter what. _Getting found out will only make everything that much harder, it's a bad idea to try and interact with any of the others normally._

The training field I usually used to work with Kuro was calm and empty. The weather was quiet, but cold at the same time. I could feel it through my fur, not quite to the point of it become visible in front of my face though. Whenever I had nothing to do at the Nest, I always sat here, either meditating or waiting for time to just pass. This was the spot I spent the most time in by far, it was calming, and I was never bothered, save for the many times Shard decided it was a good idea to get me to talk. I welcomed the silence, it was an escape of sorts, one from the Void, the Nest, from everything around me, nothing but blissful peace and quiet.

The quiet nature of this area was broken by light pawsteps, shifting the small particles of dirt under each one of them. I assumed it was someone walking by, and kept my eyes closed as they were before, my posture unchanging from sitting up straight. The small taps on the earth below grew ever so slightly louder, causing my body to involuntarily tense, though not out of fear, but alertness. Old habits die hard, and the thought that anyone quietly walking up to you is attempting to murder you is one of those. After a few more light noises, they stopped, a few feet behind me. I could easily tell where exactly the other pokemon was standing, and based on the noise of their movement, they were facing me. While one part of me wanted to address them, another was holding me back, waiting for them to ask for my attention. They were clearly here for a reason, and they would make it evident on their own.

Seconds passed, with nothing said or done between us. Whoever they were, it wasn't Shard, she refuses to walk under any circumstance, she floats everywhere. Other than her, nobody else comes to me here, so the possibilities in my head moved in soparrattic patterns. A short and quick breath was drawn from behind me. "Kai?"

My ear twitched, recognizing the voice. It wasn't someone I talked to often at all, and it was quiet, almost null of emotion. I opened my eyes, still facing away, letting the violet burst of light enter my eyes, along with the small specks of brown and green from my standing point. "Yes?" I responded, also stoically, though it was forced.

Another pause took place. "I need to talk to you about something important. Don't try and deny any of it either, I'm not here to argue."

An uncomfortable shudder ran down my spine, and my eyes squinted a small amount. Being approached like this wasn't normal, not at all. Not even by Shard. I've never been subjected to such a blunt statement from anyone from the Nest, not once. I slowly turned my body around, and locked eyes with the company, trying much harder to keep a mask on. "What would that be?" Even if I had never heard this tone from any others, the last one I expected it from was Kuro's partner.

My discomfort only grew, along with the tense atmosphere. "You know that Kuro got taken by the Void, right? Thanks to some delphox?" Naru seemed antsy, like she was having trouble holding still. There was also a very thin line of blood under her lip, nearly unnoticeable.

"Yes, I do. All leaders associated with him were informed as such." Though, not many needed to know, only Myra, Core, Shard and myself really. Anyone else who knows had either associated with him at one point or another, or requested to be told where he was.

"Can you please tell me where he is?" Naru had a slightly-choked voice, like she was forcing herself to talk at all.

I felt something inside of me tense, I didn't like where this was going, nor did I like hearing someone talk who sounds like they had just finished bawling. "I wish I knew, I would most definitely tell you if I could." That wasn't entirely false, I would consider it, she had a right to know these things, and would be able to spread them in the Nest. Problem is… I honestly have no idea where he's located.

"Please… you have to tell me... " Naru looked down to the ground, gritting her teeth. "I know you're with the Void… so please…" She pleaded.

My head quickly turned into a hurricane, as opposed to the calming breeze from before. _How could she know..? Did Aven tell her? Did she figure it out on her own?_ Without making my confusion and sudden worry visible, I searched my head, looking for a way to respond. It wasn't easy to keep my composure, as if she knew, who else? Everyone? Maybe just her? I had no idea, but thinking about it would only make talking that much harder. I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out at first. I retraced my steps and took a breath, shaking a small bit. "How do you know something like that?" I managed to get out, though not as confident as I sounded before.

"That doesn't matter!" Naru yelled, taking a step closer, causing me to automatically lean back. "I need to know…"

I bit my lip, unsure of what to say. Naru looked as if she had tears building in the corners of her eyes, her voice growing weaker and weaker. _For her to come to me like this… for all she knows, I could have been like every other Void member, and try to kill her on the spot. She doesn't know I'm being forced…, and she still came here._

My own shaking wasn't visible, but Naru's was, I could easily tell. Whether it was from fear, anxiety, sadness, a combinations of emotions, I had no idea. She had to be desperate though, extremely so in order to say something like that. She really wanted to find her partner, in order to help him. I hardly knew anything about her, nothing aside from what Shard has told me from her mentoring. Even so, the bond between her and Kuro was obvious, anyone could see that, even the ones who had no relation to either one of them. They were always together, with very rare exceptions. I was really worried about Kuro, but I couldn't even begin to imagine what she felt.

After coming to the realization that I've been staring at Naru for about a minute straight, I had to say something, even if it's not what she wanted to hear. "I can't. I have no idea where he's being held. I'm not… trusted with that information." I answered truthfully. "He's in a facility exclusive to the Void's top five leaders, but I am ignorant to the location of it."

Naru's trembling stayed consistent, as she absorbed the information I had given her. "T-That can't be right... " She didn't resist a tear rolling down her cheek. "You're telling me he's with the most dangerous of them all..? And nobody other than them knows where..? Y-You're kidding…" She choked on her words and let out a sob, backing up. "W-What can I even do..?"

I was surprised that she believed me so easily, although it can have to do with her desperation. I averted my eyes from her, unable to watch her current state.

"W-Why would you tell me that though?" Naru shook her head, trying to stop herself from crying for any longer. "Y-You're with them… I thought you were gonna attack…"

Another pause took place, and I, like before, honestly considered talking about my position at the Void, and how I'm not there by choice, how I've been there for ages, stuck in an endless loop. Spouting that information was far too dangerous though, both for me, and for her. _It's not like I can just ignore it though… She knows that I'm a part of the Void… That's just as dangerous._ "Let's say I don't agree with a lot of their policies, and I don't care about them." I sighed, wanting to elaborate but deciding to take it slow and safe. "You have every right to not believe me, these are just the ramblings of a monster. They're not going to kill Kuro, I can nearly guarantee that as fact."

Naru's head shot to me, and she tilted it, a confused expression evident on her face. I didn't wait for her to ask to further explain. "They need him for some sort of information, although I'm unsure of what. It's apparently something only he can provide, something that Luna wants. You know Kuro better than I do, he won't just cough up information he knows the Void needs, and he won't be killed as long as he doesn't speak up." I thought about Luna's typical protocol, from past experiences. "Luna takes risks, a lot of them. War is like a game to her, the Void is her army to play with, and with every move comes risks. She takes more risks then what's safe, but there are certain things she doesn't bet on. Coincidentally finding someone else who has whatever she needs from Kuro isn't a likely occurrence, so she won't risk killing him until he talks. He'll remain alive as long as he can resist letting that information spill. For better or for worse…" I muttered the last part, nearly inaudibly.

The trembling from the glaceon in front of me was no less evident, but her tears had stopped before they escalated. "W-Will he be safe though..? Even if he's not k-killed..?" _That's hard to answer…_

I took a deep breath. "He won't be killed… that's all I can tell you. The Void is… awful. All of us are terrible. I wish I could tell you that he'll be safe, but with Luna at the helm of that section of the place, I can't promise he won't be subjected to torture…" It was the truth, as much as I hated to think about it.

"T-Torture..?" Naru looked down again, closing her eyes, and seemingly attempting to stop herself from shaking, with no sign of a result. I wanted to get the topic away from Kuro, it wasn't going to do either of us justice.

"Are you sure you're content believing what I say?" I asked, letting my monotone drop. "I'm with them, all of the Void, I'm a part of them. How can you accept what I say..? Easily at that..?"

"E-Earlier, I was attacked by someone else, new to the Void." She wiped her closed eyes with a paw. "H-He told me the same thing, that he didn't know where Kuro was. It just happened, so I know you couldn't coordinate that. Y-You both wouldn't have told me the same thing if it wasn't true…" _Someone new to the Void..? She was attacked again..?_ "If you didn't lie about that, you wouldn't lie about the other things either… even if I don't understand why…"

Naru's logic was flawed, I hope I'm the first one she's believed so easily, and she hasn't run into another Void member who has tried to spread information prior. It would be easy to coordinate a lie like that, about us not knowing where the location of Kuro is. If the one she was attacked by was 'new,' then there's no way he knew about it either. That means, while we both told the truth, it was a stroke of luck on her part to trust our word, she has no reason to do so. _It shows her desperation…_ "I already told you, I don't agree with a lot of the Void, so I don't care if I spread information."

"But… is that really enough of a reason to say all of that? It's dangerous, isn't it..?"

"Very. I guess that's not the only reason I'm talking." I paused for a second, closing my eyes again. "I… guess you can say I developed a positive relationship with Kuro. I care about him, and if I could, I would do whatever possible to get him out of that hellhole." Naru looked as if she was about to interrupt, but I continued. "I'll do what I can that may lead to Kuro being released, but that's not much. After he knows what I'm a part of, it's not like he'll want anything to do with me, and I don't blame him. If I wanted to adhere to everything the Void wants, I wouldn't have let myself get attached."

The silence between us grew thick again. I unintentionally started venting a little bit, despite the fact Naru knows nothing about my situation. As far as she knows, I'm just another part of the Void. "Why would you join then..?"

I opened my eyes and looked at her once more. "You don't agree with them… so why would you end up going along with them..?"

"Because I'm an idiot." I responded bluntly. "I shouldn't have gotten involved, but I am now, and I can't get out of it."

Letting myself get manipulated by the Void at a young age was a terrible mistake, yet I let it happen, and let everything escalate far beyond what it should have been. I hate myself for it, to be bribed by a sadist, and to keep on following it even when I started to realize what I was doing was wrong. Since I didn't stop myself, I'm stuck now, stuck within the walls of the Void, with nearly no chance of getting away without being tracked down and killed.

"Kuro already knows you're with them…" My eyes opened once more, and I stared blankly. "He's the one that told me… that's how I know…" _He knew before her..? How..?_ "But… You don't know how Kuro recognized you as a Void member..?" Naru asked in a questioning voice, as if it was something I should have been aware of.

"I had no idea he knew… why does he even meet with me?" I contemplated, not really meaning to talk out loud.

"He's there with you because he wants to get stronger, and he knows that you're more so than him, so even if he's terrified of you, he still comes to train, because he wants to be able to stop the Void from hurting others like he was." _Terrified..?_ I thought back to the first day I saw Kuro, outside of the Nest, trembling, standing in place. "But… you seem like you don't belong with the Void. Not if you're going against their wishes like this."

I didn't belong with the Void, Naru was right. I hated it there, I hated hurting and killing innocents who didn't deserve it, and yet, I kept on doing it. I'm afraid to stop, I'll be taken aside and punished if I do, which locked me in a state of fear, one that made it easy to take advantage of me. I still get more and more scared every day, that Aven or Luna is going to confront me directly, because I never stopped training Kuro when they asked me to. That's the first time I went against Void orders in many years, and it's just been ignored up to now. I think about it all the time, and it chills me to the core. That's all it always has been. I'm fearful, I'm a total coward. I can be taken advantage of when pokemon poke at my weaknesses, it's that easy. Just another reason why I hated myself.

"I can't look at you in a positive light… as much as I try." Naru looked back to the ground again. "It's just impossible right now. I don't know why you're with the Void, but Kuro was right when he said your actions to help seemed genuine…" She shook her head after speaking. "Whatever is keeping you at the Void, whatever chain is holding you down, it's possible to break, but as long as you're attached to it… and I'm ignorant as to why, I can't see anything in front of me… other than a Void member."

I nodded, resuming my monotone voice. "I don't deserve to be seen in any kind of light. I'll help Kuro get to where he needs to be, but other than that, I'll be connected to the Void. It's simple as that. I don't have the strength to break out."

"If I thought it was safe, I would tell the Nest… and you would probably be captured or killed on the spot…" Naru paused again, seemingly at a loss. "A-As of now, even if you don't belong in the Void, you're an enemy of mine, and as long as you're in that position, I can't sympathize with you." _And I can't give you a reason to sympathize with me in the first place._

"Then we will continue to be on opposite sides of the conflict." I stated bluntly. There wasn't any getting around it, I was with the Void in the end, as much as I didn't want to be. I was still just a monster. A monster who has killed who knows how many at this point, for no reason other than fear. No reason other than my own cowardice.

"Thank you for the information…" Naru turned around and walked away. I was unmoving.

Naru tried to see things from my perspective, but she doesn't know why I'm in the Void in the first place, or that I'm being forced to stay through threats. Not that it would make much of a difference, I was still the same pokemon even if she knew the whole story. The same monster that I've always been, and will continue to be, because I'm scared.

And nothing can break that fear. Nothing that I can see.

* * *

 **Grace**

Humming to myself, walking along a long stretch of stone through a small town, I was ready to go and accomplish my next mission objective. As usual, it was given to me by Luna, she still doesn't trust me to pick my own as if I'm a freshly hatched eevee, which was insulting! At the same time, I understood, because I know me. But either way, insulting! I was in a small town, apparently known as Spirit town, housing a bunch of lovely-looking multi-colored plants dancing in the cold air, not that I liked flowers or anything, even though I am a plant. _Can I be considered a plant? Maybe? Kind of? Oh well._

I was to search a home for possible minerals that Firefox could use to make more enhancement thingies to make a bunch of pokemon stronger. It was determined that we needed to make more, because apparently, Hothead came back all beaten up because the idiot ran into a fight without even studying how to throw a proper punch before. Like, seriously? Come on! I'm not the brightest bulb, but at least I have battle instincts! That guy sucks! I got to beat him up afterwards though, so it was worth it! _Even if I almost killed him… Oh well! He was okay in the end! Kind of. With a bunch of cuts and a broken leg._

I shivered from the sub-zero weather, and by sub-zero, I mean slightly below average weather that I always over exaggerate because I hate the cold more than I hate cleaning blood off the ceiling on a bad day when I'm tired. Luckily, I haven't had to do that in a long while, I've been doing all of work properly and efficiently! Well more efficiently than normal, two days late instead of four. You gotta start somewhere, right?

Most importantly, I haven't failed any since I let myself get idiotically poisoned by Blacky, who is apparently stuck in a closed room, getting nearly burned to death by Firefox, and various other forms of lovable torture! I wanted to join in, but I had to stay back with the main portion of the Void, as all of our strongest went over there, and I happened to be out and about counting how many rocks I could break with my tail in twenty seconds, so I got left behind on babysitting duty. I have noooo idea how to run an organization, but I'm sure as hell giving it my best effort! By that, I mean I laid out all of the Void tasks that need to get done, and then left. Leadership was not the role for me, I was more of a battle hungry plant, that's my specialty, so I was gonna stick with it. I even moved up to third in the Void in danger level! That was awesome! I got to one up the assassin too, so it was even better! _And he said my methods of running endlessly and overcompensation don't work, HA! Next up is Passionless! I'll be the strongest leg in the Void soon enough!_

My tasks have been incredibly boring though. Stupid material gathering from a bunch of different places, talking to pokemon for information that I'm not supposed to kill, and looking in a random shack for more supplies for Firefox to make a nuclear bomb or something, I had no idea. I haven't been able to kill anyone! I even found someone could have killed in that shack and I couldn't!

I slowed my walking down a bit, thinking. _Why couldn't I kill him again? The little charmander? Something held me back, but what?_

That wasn't the first time either, when I've been on a mission and I couldn't get myself to kill some random pokemon. It was so odd! I don't have any friends or anything, so why were there a bunch of random pokemon I just couldn't kill!? It didn't make sense! Not to me anyway, part of me wondered if I should look for something that all of them had in common, but I couldn't connect the dots. It was way too hard for me to figure stuff like that out, and I don't know why, I just kinda can't do it. It's like, I get an idea, and then as soon as I go to dissect that idea more, poof! It's gone! Happens every time I try and think about why I can't kill certain pokemon, and it bothers me too much! Makes me want to go and beat up the assassin because for some reason he's always the first pokemon that comes to my head when I want to beat someone up. It was especially odd because he was probably the closest thing to a companion I've had… ever. As long as I can remember at least, and we're not even friends! Just… what's the term? Kindred spirits? Associates? Companions? Whatever it was, we weren't friends! I didn't have those things, they just got in the way of everyone.

That being said, it seems like whenever I was attacking two or more pokemon who consider one another friends, it's a lot harder for some reason. I can still do it effortlessly, but it's noticeably different when that's the case. That being said though, I've never failed a task by the means of someone else! Not once! I've failed a few times because of my own carelessness and density, but never because I wasn't tough enough! I'm planning on keeping it that way too! I refuse to be taken down by anyone else! Although, there's always someone higher than you, so getting cocky wasn't a smart move. That's why I never stopped training, no matter what. Even if, with the point I'm at now, I can probably take ninety percent of the world's population on, there's still always that ten percent that will always be better than you. New ones always rise up, and if lazy, the top players will flimsily fall down the tree of power. Something like that will not happen to me, that's for sure.

I gotta say, that was a pet peeve of sorts I had with the Void. Almost every single one of them had this arrogance, a superiority complex towards everyone else, I disliked that. I would never show that attitude towards someone I knew nothing about, it's risky and idiotic, which probably sounds like the least impactful thing on the planet coming from me, but if there was one thing I was familiar with, it was knowledge of survival. I have nooooo idea whatsoever why I knew so much about said survival tactics, but I did, and I wasn't going to waste any bit of that knowledge. Maybe that's why I didn't hate The Assassin, because he was similar in a way. He wasn't arrogant, but instead careful and methodical with everything he did. Granted, I was neither one of those things, but I'm sure as hell not arrogant either! When I inevitably get myself killed, I won't let it be because I was cocky and overconfident! _Not sure if that's healthy to think… Oh well!_

Even if it was at the very least, possible for me to get along with the Assassin, it was impossible for me to not hate Firefox with a burning… puns… burning passion. That arrogance problem? She has the worst of it by far. She's dangerous, without a doubt, and to be honest, she's one of the ones I feel like can just kill anyone if they minorly inconvenienced her. I'm the same in that regard of course, but that just raises her threat level more, which I couldn't deny. That being said… I hate her sooooooo much! She's put a lot of work into her skills, she can freeze and control dark types, which don't get me wrong, that's impressive, but she thinks she can do literally anything because of it, and that she's above everyone, no matter what. It's… so… irritating! Honestly, if she wasn't the best scientist in the Void bar none and if Luna wouldn't mutilate me if I tried to kill her, trust me, I would do it in a heartbeat. Living in the same facility as her and needing to even interact on a decent basis just increases that hatred as time progresses.

I cleared my head of all Firefox-related thoughts, she didn't need to be on my mind. I had a menial task to complete after all! Searching for stuff and things! I traced my paws across the ground, heading to a small home located… somewhere in this place. I didn't know exactly where, but I would find it! Just takes a bit of time… a lot of time sometimes, but time is something that doesn't always run out. After all, there's always time to think about time sometimes.

…

 _Let's stop thinking about time._

As I was walking down a very soft patch of grass, something bumped into one of my hind legs, nearly causing me to tumble forward. I put one forepaw in front of the other, followed by my back paws quite quickly until managing to stop myself just short of falling over. I jumped and flipped my body around, mouth already open to shout. As soon as I laid my eyes on the small togepi on the ground before me, all that came out was a cough, and my body went stiff.

I gulped and looked down at the small critter, scrambling its egg-like body to stand with a nearly inaudible, almost comedic groan. "Ouch…" They rubbed their head with one of their stubby hands. I took a breath and stared down at them, unsure of what to do. I ended up tapping my paw on the ground impatiently a few times, feeling uncomfortable. Without another word, the togepi ran by me energetically, seemingly having somewhere to be. I turned my head, but not my body, and watched them run to a roserade and a togekiss, before following them to another part of the miniscule town.

My blank state of mind reverted to normal not long after, and I shook my head, walking in a different direction now. My body shuddered a bit, and I continued on my way.

 _Again… What was that?_

* * *

Hello Readers!

I actually have something to say this time! Hoorah! The day this chapter goes up, it will be a year since the very first chapter of this story was released, a whoooollleee year! Dear Arceus where does time go? Writing this became such a natural part of my schedule, and I'm very pleased it did! I met some awesome people, who I never would have, had I not decided to go through with what started as a way to vent my emotions. :p Two in particular have had GIGANTIC impacts on my life in multiple ways, and you know who you are. I almost didn't write this, was terrified to put myself out there, because, you know, the events of the first chapter may not be seen by many as "acceptable," but one day, I was staring at the doc for the first chapter in school, and just slapped myself in the face and told myself to do it, and I did. I've never been so happy that I slapped myself! I did actually do it by the way, I'm a strange hooman.

Annnyway though, the first chapter went up, anxiety was high, and I'm pretty sure I was taking finals or something at the time, so I was stresssseeed. It only took a few hours for me to get a review, saying that I did a good job on the start, but here are some points you can improve on. I couldn't be happier with that as a start! I was told it wasn't terrible, and given feedback, I loved it! Great first impression for writing! Two days later I got a PM from someone else telling me to see a therapist, but I ignored that one. :p

Not long after, I uploaded another chapter, receiving very similar feedback, and I was still appreciative! This continued for a long while, eventually leading to having a beta reader and actually talking to some people other than reviews, I was being social! Kind of. I'm not good with words, but I try. :p The reviews and whatnot sort of slowed down after a while, and are still fairly slow nowadays, which initially worried me, making me think that people just lost interest, which led me to check my analytics for like the second time, and low and behold, it's been viewed nearly twelve thousand times. That just… blew my mind. Sure, it's probably not much when considering the scale, but just as a number, that's a lot! Sure it also added pressure to writing in the future, but I mean, still! That was awesome to think about for me! I've been worried about the quality of the recent chapters, as I said, the feedback has died down a lot, so I'm not sure what parts I'm doing wrong, but at the same time, I have people tell me that they came out really well, and that I'm not screwing them up. I've just been confused I suppose. :p

A year later, three hundred thousand words, not too bad I don't think. Could have been more if I was more consistent, but I'll take it, still the longest thing I've ever written by far. :p I'm inclined to say I'm proud of it too! Could use a lot of work, those first ten or so, those still need to be re-done. :p But It'll happen for sure! It'll just take some time! Much time! I don't have a lot of that right now. :p

Finally, I just need to thank everyone who reads this, and especially those who have stuck around for so long! I really appreciate every last one of you more than I can describe! All of the reviews, PMs, all that, I love them! So keep them coming! Thank you to my beta reader for cleaning up all of my chapters! (8-BitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	44. Lost

**Kuro**

I'm not sure how long it's been since I regained consciousness. I was certainly awake though, evident by the burning all over, though decidedly less scalding then it was prior. I assumed my body really was just getting far more used to the sensation of extreme heat then it ever should. My eyes were glued shut at this point, I didn't feel as if I could open them even if I tried. It was odd, I didn't feel like there was a pile of dirt under me anymore, it felt almost stringy, like a lot of small and thin pieces making up a surface. It was almost comfortable, that is, for whatever I could feel. Whatever parts of me that weren't burning had nothing at all, just numb. It was totally foreign to me, how my extreme state of distress and discomfort morphed into whatever I was feeling now in the span of time I was out. _I even partially went insane… but hopefully that's worn off._

Disregarding whatever illusions my mind decided to create for me before I ended up losing consciousness, none of this seemed normal at all. I wasn't in an amount of pain that caused me to constantly twitch and quite literally lose it, so that was a plus. I think? I was still stuck to my knowledge, though where my restraints were locked to my body, I felt not the same pressure as before, but a dull ache, like a bruise that's been there for weeks, and you can only feel when pressing down on it. They didn't feel as tightly wrapped around my legs as prior, which was, again, odd. My breathing felt even, and almost calm, which baffled me more than anything else right now. Under no circumstance should I have been calm, I was still stuck and unable to do a thing. Yet, I sure felt it, unnaturally so.

Something felt off, many things felt off. My current, calm demeanor, that was unnatural. Whatever the texture under my body is, it wasn't dirt, it couldn't have been. The recessing heat all around me, that didn't make sense. My ability to breathe, it was stable, as opposed to the lack of oxygen I was experiencing before. The lack of senses in parts of my body didn't feel like it came from the intense flames, but rather, felt like it was artificially applied to me. My confusion was slowly growing as I contemplated all of this, and there was one good way to figure out whatever was up.

With a lot of effort, I felt my eyelids slowly open, and immediately shut them upon a centimeter of light. It burned badly, and felt like something had been stuck into my eye, despite nothing being there. Through the millisecond of my eye being opened, I saw nothing but a blurry mess of colors, before reflexes caused my eyes to shut again. Something was certainly different though, I saw different colors, vivid colors, not darkness like before. My sight wasn't used to the colors, so my instincts made it impossible for me to further observe anything in my surroundings. However, the fact that I saw colors, actual, bright colors, baffled me. There was no way out of that room, that is, unless I was carried out of it by a Void member, in which case, I would assume I wouldn't be anywhere safe still, just another dark room in the Void. I would have it all figured out already, but simply the fact that I saw colors, it contradicted everything I knew about this place so far. To be more specific, the room I've always been didn't have enough light to pierce my eyes upon opening, and considering the experience I had a few seconds ago, I had to have been moved. _Hopefully not for more torture… That last part was terrible…_

The last act against me since I passed out was from the delphox scientist, she blasted flames into my retinas. There was no warning the first time fire was launched passed my eyelids, but every subsequent time, she would prompt me to expose my pupils, increasing their vulnerability to heat. The fire itself wasn't very powerful, there was almost no force behind it, but it had the most basic property of fire within, that being intense warmth. I told myself that I had, for the most part, adapted to extreme temperatures, based on my initial living situation, and the previous days I spent locked within the Void. I've lived through the hottest days with little to no shelter, and bore the ever increasing intensity of the chamber I was contained in. Needless to say, I was used to it, and yet, once those flames focused on my irises, it felt like I had never been hot in my life. I couldn't hold back my screams with even the first stream, and each following one just felt worse and worse. After a while, one of my eyes became numb though, not just to the heat, but to everything. I couldn't even feel air hit my right eye, granted it's not like I've been able to try and embrace these feelings while stuck in a single place devoid of much air, but it just felt… different. That was the only way I could really put it into words, unusual.

My chest slowly rose and lowered as I took in oxygen, not feeling thin. I gulped, my legs and paws trembling, and very slowly lifted my eyelids once more. A single crack of light made my shaking intensify, bringing a sore, still heated sensation, intensifying by the second. I grit my teeth and blinked, making sure not to keep my eyes closed for any longer than that, just a blink. I repeated this, coming to terms with the blur of beige and brown coloring, abstract from the past dark room. All I could see was that blur, not able to make out a shape of any sort. My vision continued cutting in and out with each moment spent behind my eyelids, from darkness to the blur once more. After consistently performing this action for another small bit of time, I was able to keep the blur in my sight for much longer, my mannerisms calming down.

I still couldn't make out what I would call exact shapes, but it looked as if there was a roof of sorts above me, a circular one, connected with thinly cut pieces of wood. I think anyway, there were no angles for me to analyze absent of a blurred mess. I would call it an estimate that I was inside of a very small structure, based on how low the ceiling was. Without really thinking, I lifted a forepaw and rubbed one of my eyes, not feeling anything, just like before. Along with the blurriness though, something else was off. My sight felt more… narrow, almost as if some of it had been cut off, like I couldn't see at the same angle I did before, almost like my peripherals covered less space than usual. Not to mention, the numbness of my right eye, that wasn't natural I'm sure. _Wait…_

Through my blurred vision, I noticed a new portion in the very corner, a dark, black blur, with a small bit of yellow. My head took a few seconds to catch up, but my realization was no less impactful. _I… I'm not restrained..?_ I decided to lift, drag, and move all four of my legs around, feeling each of their motions against what still felt like a thin collection of something stringy. Either way though, I was able to move them, which was most definitely not possible before. _If I'm not restrained, does that mean I'm not with the Void? But if that's true, where could I possibly be? And how in the hell could I have possibly made it out..?_

My head was fuzzy, granted, passing out didn't exactly leave you with the best ability to recall past events. Although, it felt like part of my very recent memory was… taken out. Like something happened, but I can't put my paw on what exactly, or how for that matter. _I was unconscious… right?_ If I was out of commission, I shouldn't have what felt like a section of blank thoughts, I should be able to recall before I passed out, and those should be my last memories, my hallucinations. Instead, something felt… gone. Like I lived through something and couldn't grasp what it was exactly. _Maybe I'm just… actually going crazy…_

My ears twitched to what sounded like planks sliding against one another, wooden planks. Instinctively, I wanted to get up, now that I was unrestrained, but lifting any of my legs more than an inch in the air caused strain, walking and less, running away would probably knock me out again. My watered out sightline followed the sound, landing on a tall, thin figure, with a combination of colors, most prominently purple and brown. _I'm still in possession of them… there's no way it would be that simple…_

"You're awake!?" A loud, admittedly ear piercing female shout invaded my ears, a voice that I most certainly hadn't ever heard before. "Wait, no, act professional." She cleared her throat and moved herself closer to me, causing me anxiety and fear. I wasn't prepared to deal with anyone else dangerous, it was likely I was still within the Void somewhere, even if it wasn't in the same room. "How are you feeling?" I was asked gently.

My blank eyes laid on the blur, confused. _Was I just… asked with concern?_ There was no way I wasn't still in the Void, nothing could have happened that resulted in me getting away, nothing that I can think of at least. Nobody knew where I was, nor was that place unprotected, it had the some of the highest ranking Void members, it's nearly impossible that anyone could even take one of them, let alone multiple, and get someone else out from under their grip. _That's just… not possible._

I was cautious, not falling into the guise that I was safe. That being said, I needed to go along with this for now, and get a better idea of where I was, if anywhere different. I opened my mouth, ready to talk, but released nothing but a hoarse cough, causing my already sore throat to increase in heat. I laid my head back, breathing heavily. _Still can't talk well…_

"Maybe you need more treatment before you can answer that…" The blur moved from its position close to me, and a second later, returned, an even more thin line poking out from behind whatever pokemon this was. I couldn't make out what was happening, my sight was too impaired, but my mind was still in a panicked state. Like before though, I didn't resist, worried that would do nothing but make any punishments I receive that much worse. The nearly invisible portion of the blur in front of me extended outward more, approaching me, until lightly connecting to my body. I shivered, almost not recognizing the prick into my skin under my fur. I grit my teeth, partially out of fear, worried I was just injected with poison or something else harmful.

Slow minutes passed, and I was waiting to pass out again, or to start feeling pain, but instead, the artificial numb feeling I had all over slowly spread, taking away even more of the scalding heat I had been feeling for who knows how long now. It was never fully deleted, but definitely less than previously. "Now, as I was asking, how are you feeling?"

The blur talking to me was still indecipherable, I couldn't even vaguely tell what the species was. The way she spoke though, it implied that I would have an easier time talking after… whatever I was just given? Like before, I opened my mouth, ready to attempt working my vocal chords, though not to answer her question right away.

"W-Who are… y-you..?" I forced out in a nearly inaudible, hoarse voice. I even shocked myself as to how it sounded, way worse than what I had envisioned. _Have I ever spoken a word since the first time I woke up in the Void..? Or after Luna met with me initially..?_ I had small flashbacks to each of the days I spent in that room, namely the times Luna came there, and shuddered, suddenly feeling lightheaded again.

"Right, you're probably very confused." She cleared her throat. "My name is Tsu, I took you in after you arrived here to make sure you didn't die on us." Her voice was laced with concern, but that was hardly what I should have been thinking about.

"W-What do you… m-mean, arrived… h-here?" I coughed after speaking, combining the heat in my throat with numbness, creating a very uncomfortable sensation.

"I mean when you made it here from… wherever you came from." The blur leaned closer to me, causing more intimidation. "You must have arrived from somewhere dangerous, the entirety of your body has practically been incinerated, and your interior muscles are damaged."

 _This doesn't make any sense…_

"W-Who took… m-me here..?" I choked out. I was grateful that I could talk, though not so much for how difficult it was.

"Who? You took yourself here as far as I could tell." She responded, freezing me. Before I could question anything, she continued. "That's not important right now, you probably can't see too well, so why don't we fix that as best we can?" _I'm so lost… What do you mean I came here by myself..?_

From out of the mess of colors my gaze could pick up, another thin line approached my body, this time right above my head. I couldn't even tell what color this one was, just that it was thin, and reflective. "Keep your eyes open for me real quick." Not knowing what else to do, I submitted to the command given to me, still on edge as to where I was an why I was here. A quick drop of liquid tapped one of my open eyes, leading to an unavoidable responsive blink, and five more to follow. My head unorthodoxly twitched, sensing the droplet fall onto my eye and slowly running down under the lids covering it, washing down its entirety. I shivered, feeling a frosty wave, contrasting to the extreme heat I was so used to. It was only for a second, and that sensation petered out, right back to the sweat-inducing temperature.

After one final open and close of my eye, my vision was practically replaced. Instead of the lack of clarity I had before, I was able to make out a collection of light brown branches, connecting with one another to make a veiling, rounded edges increasing in height as the center approached. Around me were walls, same material, but in a different direction, stretching vertically as opposed to horizontally. There were no windows in sight, but on the east end, a clearly closed door was present, and the west end, a shelf with small items, some of which looking like tools. To my right, in front of the door, a dragalge floated, initially confusing me. _Aren't they aquatic? What is a pokemon like that doing- Why am I thinking about this right now?_

"A little better?" Tsu backed up an inch or two. "Though, it looks like that's the best I can do, I couldn't really fix everything, but better than nothing." _What does she mean?_ While my sight was monumentally better than before, I still had the same issue. My area of vision seemed smaller, and a little ajar from what I was used to. "You sounded pretty clueless about your own situation earlier, do you want to.. Er, take a look at yourself?"

I froze, just as I did before. _What… kind of condition am I really in..?_ It was in the back of my mind through all of my experiences, what my body looked like after the copious amounts of physical torture placed upon me. I never placed too much focus on it though, honestly assuming that the rest of my life would be spent within the confines of that room, until they went too far and straight up killed me. Now that I was seemingly elsewhere, I could actually see what I look like following what was done to me. As much as the notion scared me, it made me equally as curious. For better or for worse, I wanted to see what I looked like, or rather, how bad everything was. "S-Sure…" I answered, shaky voice still present.

I was met with a nod, as two, narrow branch-like appendages extended from Tsu's back, reaching over me to the aforementioned shelf, lifting a large, reflective surface above me slowly, revealing my own image to me for the first time since I was captured.

You would think, with black fur, that seared marks and burnt flesh wouldn't be visible. This was not the case. All over my body, from the ends of my hind paws to the tips of my ears, were sporadic and scattered burn marks. Portions of my fur were singed, other parts of it no longer existed, replaced by an equally dark color of skin. With a single glimpse at my Raven symbol, I was able to see it was untouched, not a single evident burn on it. No way that wasn't intentional on the Void's part. For what reason, I wasn't sure, but regardless, my entire body was covered in burns, almost looking permanent. Even all that though, wasn't my main point of focus. The burns scared me, showed me how bad of a condition I was in, sure. That didn't compare to my right eye, no longer blood or ruby red. Ghost white. That's what my right eye looked like.

Automatically, one of my forepaws met the discolored eye, making contact. I didn't feel it, not a thing.

I was locked onto it for a long while, unable to re-focus on anything else. My mentality of fear, while still evident, died down a bit, making room for intrigue. From one place to another, my head theorized what caused such an odd and drastic change. It should have been obvious, there really aren't many possibilities in the first place after all, and considering what I already did realize about my condition, those possibilities were narrow. I couldn't determine exactly what the problem was, only because my mind was still catching up with… everything.

I observed the entirety of my body one final time, before testing something. I placed one of my forepaws over my newly colored eye, no sensation of any kind. I came to an understanding of why it looked the way it did, breaking from the blood red standard. Typically, when you close one eye, or cover it with anything, you can perceive a small difference before and after, that shows which eye you're seeing out of, or rather, shows a difference from what you can take in with both eyes. It made sense, because you were cutting off a decent portion of your sightline. After covering my bleached eye, I didn't notice anything whatsoever, no change at all. That was red flag number one.

After hesitating more than I was willing to admit, I moved the same forepaw to my other eye, slowly and completely covering it. My other eye was open, and yet, I saw nothing. Blank, dark space.

 _My right eye… is totally blind, isn't it?_

"I'm guessing I don't need to tell you about that?" Tsu said, sounding as if she was still in the same exact spot.

"I knew it was b-bad… wasn't sure of it being t-this much though…" I responded raspily. _I guess that clears up why it seems like I've been looking at everything through an angle… I'm actually blind in one eye…_ I took a deep breath, stabilizing myself.

"Well, it could have been worse, actually, you may want to consider yourself lucky." I tilted my head, removing my paw from my eye.

"L-Lucky..?" I questioned.

Tsu made an 'Mhm' sound. "If you didn't waltz over here when you did, it's more than likely your other eye would have ended up the same way over time, and you would be fully blind, if not dead." _Nice…_

I had many questions, and they needed to be asked, no matter how crappy I was feeling at the moment. "W-What do you mean I… w-waltzed over here? W-When did I arrive..?" I needed to clear up what happened, and how I got here. A huge part of me just assumed I was still within the Void and this was nothing but a new scheme to get me to talk, but there was always that smaller bit, the one telling me I somehow made my way out of there.

"Well, it's hard to explain. Or rather, I don't really know." Tsu glided through the air, placing the mirror-like object back onto the shelf with her branch-like appendages. "I wasn't the one to find you, it was a child here. They told me a story, but seeing as they have quite the… overactive imagination, I wouldn't take it at face value." She took in a breath. "Allegedly, you found your way here by yourself, completely blind at the time. Not only that, but you walked into our small area with pink glowing rings, and a distorted, dusk-like aura surrounding you. Both of your eyes were shut, and as soon as you made it about ten feet away from the one who found you, the glow around your body slowly died down, and you passed out on the ground, your rings reverting to their normal golden coloring." _...What…?_ "I wouldn't take that at face value… The kid wants to be an explorer, so he thinks up a lot of crazy stories. However, I can confirm that you were alone when others showed up to give you medical attention."

 _So… I somehow got away from the Void, made my way to… wherever this is, and proceeded to pass out, all while burned severely enough to scar, in extreme pain, and completely blind._ I paused. _Is that physically possible for anyone? That's one of the most absurd things to ever cross my mind…_

I let out an audible sigh. "H-How long ago was this..?" I decided not to harp on it too much at the moment, I needed to clear more than just that up anyway. _That's definitely impossible…_

"Less than a day, maybe fifteen hours ago? You've been out cold until just now. You were taken here by the child and a few others, where I was barely able to recover your vision, well, half of it, and help your burns a little bit. They're still pretty bad, as you can see, but they should be much more mellowed out now, as long as you don't overdo it." I nodded towards Tsu. _I need to find whoever brought me here and thank them…_

"W-Where exactly… am I-I..?" That was the next important question on my mind.

"We're a group of nomads, and this is our home base of sorts. We didn't always have one, but a group of five went missing a while back, and have yet to come back, so we decided to get more organized to prevent any more events like that in the future." _A group of nomads? That's interesting._ "We do have a map of everywhere we've been in the past, so maybe you can get an idea of where exactly you are if you take a look at that, but one thing at a time. You're not exactly in a good condition after all." _Right… but I can't just wait…_

What Tsu said was fact. I was obviously in a very bad condition, physically, and while she didn't know it, I haven't exactly recovered mentally from the experiences in the Void, more specifically, whenever Luna involved herself. I knew all of this, and yet, I wanted to jump away from where I was laying, and look at that map. I wanted to move, to figure out where I was, and find a way back to the Nest as soon as possible. It wasn't practical, but that didn't stop me from wanting it badly. If I really wasn't within the Void anymore, I wanted to get back to everyone else as soon as physically possible. _The question is… How exactly am I going to do that? Walking there with bad injuries will be harmful… but I don't want to wait ages to heal up…_

"Mind if I ask you something?" My head snapped out of my running thoughts, interrupted by Tsu's voice. "How exactly did you get… all burned and bruised?"

I took a second before answering. "I-I was taken by… a-a nasty group. T-They did some bad things t-to me." In my head, Luna appeared briefly, getting me to shiver, but I shook it off. "I-I have no idea how I'm not t-there anymore… H-How I got away…" _Nothing seems possible… nothing that ended with me freed from the Void…_

"I see… I'm sorry to hear that." Tsu bowed her head, endowing me with a bit of guilt.

"D-Don't be, as far as I know, y-you and your group of nomads saved my l-life. Or at least, m-my sight, what's left of i-it." I attempted to assure. The child that presumably notified everyone else of my presence and Tsu, who fixed me up, certainly made my life miles easier, they had nothing to be sorry about, making me usurp some unpleasant memories didn't need to be apologized for.

"Well, regardless, you seem to be in a hurry, you're unnaturally fidgety." Tsu said with what looked like a smirk. _It's noticeable..?_

"I-I have some pokemon I need to g-get back to…" I answered in a quiet voice. "S-Sooner much better than later…" The threat that who I now know as Nekro made to me right after I was captured, telling me he was going after Naru… even though it was more than likely that Naru would mop the floor with him, increased strength or not, I was still worried.

"I understand. Being separated from others you care about sucks. Ever since those five went AWOL, I know the feeling all too well…" Tsu sighed, before wrapping an appendage around something small, resting on the same shelf as earlier. It looked like an injection, a small one at that. "It's not exactly safe to move all around in your condition, but if you have somewhere to be, I won't stop you from trying your best to get there. Plus, as nomads, we're not used to outsiders, it's probably better you leave as soon as you can." _Well isn't that great…_

Tsu bright the injection to my neck, and pushed it in without warning, prompting a flinch. I felt something flow into me, a thick liquid, contrary to what I usually feel from a shot. My body began to feel a little shaky, and the numbness all over my body petered out.

"I just gave you the equivalent of an adrenaline shot. It'll last a long time, but not forever. Your injuries aren't severe to the point where you have to be bedridden, so they'll heal over time as you move, albeit slower. To be honest, your burns look a lot worse than they actually are, they sting, but they aren't actually harmful to your body other than that. They'll improve as long as you stay away from open flames." I nodded through every one of Tsu's words.

"T-Thank you…" I turned onto my stomach, promoting a wince. Below me was a makeshift bed made of ropes, tightly knotted to be both comfortable but firm at the same time. After a deep breath, I pushed off of the surface, hopping down to the grounds, my paws meeting grass and dirt. My body still felt heavy, but I was able to stand, with at the very least, a small bit of energy in my body, thanks to that shot. _I'll improve over time… just need to bear with it for now…_

"Avoid any fighting if you can too, irritating your current wounds will just make the healing process that much harder, especially if you plan on moving." I nodded once more and took a breath.

"Thank you again… Y-You may as well have saved my life…" I bowed appreciatively. I still had no idea how I got into this situation, but I would figure it out eventually. That wasn't the important thing in my head right now, I only had one thing on my mind. Getting back to the Nest, back to everyone there. _Back to you…_

"Quit thanking me, it feels… strange." Tsu stared at me awkwardly. "Usually pokemon just come in, get healed, and leave. You're in a rush, I gave you a shot that's slowly wearing off, go find where you need to go, and get there."

I gave a wordless nod, heading to the exit of the small shelter.

I pushed it open, using my head, right under a huge letter 'N' carved into it.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Sort of short chapter today, I had a bit of a hard time focusing on writing about halfway through, but it's up and ready now! So yay for that!

Quick thing I want to say to everyone who reads this: If any of you *X amount of people* who see this are having a hard time in life or anything similar, I am open to talk to, vent to, and help in any way I can. I've noticed a pattern in a lot of different setting recently, and that's how common certain mental problems are in the general public. Depression, suicidal thoughts, I knew they were indeed common, but not as much as I've noticed recently. I'm not a professional or anything, but having someone to talk or vent to, helps a lot more than you may think, I know from experience. So I'm open to help anyone who may need it! Just wanted to let all of you know!

I want to thank everyone who sends in Pms, reviews, all of that. I love all of it, so keep them coming! Thank you to my beta reader for cleaning up all of my chapters! (EightBitUmbreon)

See You Next Chapter!


	45. 45 PreviewUpdate

**Kuro**

A single step outside made me shiver through my now incomplete fur. Why was that? The ground was covered in a sheet of ice. Not snow, a straight up solid floor of frozen water. Upon taking another step, I dragged one of my paws on accident, slipping and falling on the side of my body right off the bat. The ice, while admittedly soothing to whatever parts of my body still burned, didn't feel too great when a blunt impact is a part of the equation. I let out a groan, looking around the area before pushing myself up again. _I was just told not to overexert myself and I immediately trip… Way to go Kuro…_

I sighed, tracing my one working eye around my surroundings, questioning where I really was. Despite less than optimal optical ability, it wasn't overly hard to realize what kind of area I was in. The walls were solid, light blue, and rocky, giving off a sleek shine and a slurred reflection. The ceiling above had stalactites hanging high up, not getting very close to the frozen floor below. Around me, multiple tent-like structures were present, nailed to the solid ground below, surrounded by very small cracks. The ice was visibly thick, not fragile in the slightest, which brought the slightest bit of relief into my mind. _That's not important right now, I need to find that… map? Where would that be located…_

I looked from one side of me to the other, two decisive directions to walk along the ice. They looked identical, though one was lit up, seemingly from the spikes along the roof of the cave. A dim glow emitted from each of them, and that same light was absent in the other direction. _So it's unexplored..? Or does that just have missing lights..?_ My vision blurred for a few seconds, so I had to shake my head and recalibrate. _Best not to hyper focus on that, go where there's light. I can already barely see…_

Step by step, I carefully traversed down the cave, my muscles still feeling admittedly sluggish. There's only so much a shot of adrenaline can do for you, it helped me function, but it didn't solve all of my physical problems at the moment. After some trekking, there was nothing different from what I first laid my eyes on, just a mostly empty cavern with scattered tents and enough lighting to make out the area. My breath was ever so slightly visible in front of me, the cold air really bugging me. I was so used to wearing a scarf all the time, I was used to the light cloth warming me up, being without it and in a more cold than normal area was a little more than irritating. All of the shivers I felt weren't enough to drive me mad or anything, but I disliked it. _I don't like this area… The temperature, and the vibe… It's so lonely…_

"H-Hey!" A voice made me jump out of my thoughts, nearly making me fall over again. It came from one of the many tents, from out of my slightly impaired vision. _I'll have to get used to the new depth perception…_

"Hey hey!" I heard clicking against the ice, progressively growing in volume as each second passed. On instinct, my body tensed up, wondering if I was about to be attacked by some unknown pokemon that had to be closing in on me fast. The voice was unsteady, holding a distinct nervous tone, combined with excitement. I whipped my head around the surrounding area, looking for the source, but coming up blank. I spun in a small circle, looking all around, but finding nobody besides myself. While attempting to observe the area surrounding me, I stumbled, barely catching myself before I took another plummet into the icy ground below. _Am I hearing things..? Have I still not regained my sanity..?_

I shook my head harshly and sighed. _Stay on track Kuro… Map… You're looking for a map…_

* * *

Hello Readers, before you yell and scream at me for uploading something so short after a month of inactivity here, hear me out for just a second. Some… rather unpleasant events have taken place in my time of absence. It's kept me not only from writing, but from doing… well, just about anything. I'd much rather not go into detail here, it's not the time, nor the place to talk about this kind of thing. As usual, if you're at all concerned or curious, send me a PM, and I'll be willing to explain further, but for now, I needed to give something to inform you about why I've been so stagnant for so long. Consider the small portion before this note as a small teaser as to how the next chapter will actually play out, the entirety of the next chapter that is, not just another small portion. As for how long it'll take me to get on the complete version of this, I'm not entirely sure. I'm working on it, and trying to manage my time with everything else, but it's not exactly easy. It's just one thing after another, and keeping up with it all is just… exhausting. Writing is a stress reliever for me, something I can do to calm myself down, make progress, and make all of you happy. And yet, I've found it very difficult to sit down and get work done ever since these issues sprouted up. Not only when it comes to writing, but keeping up with everything in life as of late has just been that, tiring. I'm incredibly worn down at the moment, and the closest thing I've been able to construct since getting this small portion of the chapter done is a group of small excerpts from differents parts of the story, which are really just small details I wanted to write down.

I'm sorry for being inconsistent, and overall, not performing how I should be as an author on this site, but I promise that, slowly but surely, I'm getting through it, and I'll be back to steadily getting these chapters done for all of you. I hope you'll accept my apologies, and I hope you're not too angry for the obnoxious pause. I hope you're all having an amazing day, and will have more to come!

See you in an actual chapter!


	46. Exploring

**Grace**

Echoes in my ears, they repeat themselves over and over. A scream. The ripping and tearing of flesh. The slow cracks and snaps of bones. Integral parts of my mind now, all of these. Do I care? Not really. Hell, I have enough fun causing all of these noises to occur in the first place, I can't really complain about them getting trapped in my head. So long as I barely keep up with my work, I get to choose who I bite, who I cut, who I torture, which is just how I like it. I've even adapted just enough to not care about the thick and almost overpowering taste of blood in my mouth as I take apart whomever my current vessel is. I even started to enjoy it! _Wow, I'm screwed up. Not that I mind!_

I was standing over a large vibrava, easily an adult. He had his mouth sealed shut, courtesy of my vines and some random sharp objects I found laying around. The edges surrounding his mouth were dark, crimson, and swollen. Small droplets of blood trickled down his neck, and muffled cries of agony were barely audible. I wasn't as… sensitive to this kind of thing, like the Boss is. She's really creepy, sometimes more so than me. Don't get me wrong, I love the scent of death! Though, it's no fetish for me, like it is for her.

I slowly put my paw on this vibrava's chest, planting more and more pressure slowly but surely. His cries, like shouting into a pillow, I couldn't make them out beyond someone on the verge of suffocation. His cries grew in intensity as each of his ligaments tore, following by the quiet but brutal snapping of each one of his ribs. His body began to shake intensely, as the pain he felt increased more and more. I couldn't help but let out a burst of laughter, that most other pokemon would describe as 'manihicall,' whatever that means.

Distracted in my own laughter, I didn't notice that the body had stopped moving, the very light beat of a pulse slowly fizzled out, each thump harder and harder to feel, until they vanished completely. I tilted my head, looking at the now silent and motionless vibrava. "I killed him? Oops."

I took my forepaw off of his chest, taking a few steps back. "Aww… I wanted to hear you struggle some more…" I sighed, taking small pawsteps around the body in circles. Repeatedly, my eyes found themselves looking down at the center of his body, the exterior, actually looking relatively unharmed. The interior, likely a fountain of blood within him, with shattered remains of his bones scattered around. My head couldn't resist wondering what it looked like, his destroyed insides. With my curiosity peaked, I cracked my neck, and slowly leaned down to the now corpse, the leaf on my head now with a light glow.

With one quick motion, I swung my head down, thinly slicing the center of his stomach. At first, I only saw a thin line of crimson, hardly even visible. A few seconds passed, and I jammed my paw into that thin line, slipping it right into the body, expanding the fresh wound and covering my foreleg in blood. The strong scent of the thick liquid immediately washed over me, as used to it as I was, I didn't even gag. "Let's see what's insi-"

A sharp noise made me jump and shirek, as I turned my head , dragging my eyes all over the reflective, silver surface surrounding me. One of the walls to my west side had opened, and out came the Assassin, slowly walking closer to me, but not looking in my direction. He never acknowledged me while he was passing through, too focused on his current job. In his arms though, was something small, I couldn't quite make it what at first.

Slowly, taking completely even steps, the Assassin drew closer, and the blurry image of what he had cradled in in his forearms became more and more clear. It was a pokemon, small and yellow, though, I couldn't make out the species. The smell in the room intensified, but I still didn't react, I was far too used to the strong sensation at this point. The Assassin slowly walked by, not paying me any mind. That was usual, after all, he had nothing to speak to me about, so he wouldn't pay me any mind.

As he neared the wall opposite to him, I caught another glance, the pokemon he had resting in his arms. It's tail was long for its size, yellow with a small bit of black on the end. With that detail alone, I was able to decipher the species of the pokemon as a pikachu, which wasn't the most significant thing in the world, but my eyes couldn't help but trace down the stature of the newly arrived pikachu, noticing a thin cut on the front of its narrow throat. It was dead, quite clearly deceased. Another detail I picked up was its size, very small.

It only took a second. A rough shiver ran up my entire body, and my eyes began to water a little. I swiftly turned away from the Assassin, facing nothing but the wall of the torture room we were in.

Without warning, I threw my neck forward, and vomited on the body I was just messing with.

* * *

 **Kuro**

My eyelids opened and shut beyond my control, a slowly creeping itch absorbed the two of them. I was more than tempted to bring my paw up and rub them, but in time, it would only increase the irritation. My vision, while I was adapting slowly but surely, was still heavily blurred. Determining what I was looking at could be rather difficult if it wasn't just an icy wall in front of me. That, and the lights tracing the ceiling, those were recognizable. However, unless I really focused, I could easily mistake a rock in the icy cave for a small pokemon. While desperately trying not to slip, my vague eyesight found what looked like a clump of images on the wall, with beige coloring around the perimeter of what seemed like a giant square, the edges having sections missing, almost as if they had been torn off.

Curious, I slipped my paws along the ice, getting into a balanced position, before picking them up off of the floor below, trudging over to the glob I pictured on the wall. Once I was within inches of it, I repeatedly blinked, holding myself still and trying to focus on what I was looking at. It took a few seconds, but I managed to finally calibrate my sight to a point I could read what was placed in front of me, just what I had been searching for in here.

I mentally smiled, gazing upon what seemed to be a large map, or rather, not one large map, but many smaller ones, almost sewn together to create a larger one. Where one map ended, another one began, with completely consistent geometry. One mountainous area that may have ended on the edge of a map, was immediately continued upon, just with a different sheet of paper. There were some environments that I wasn't very familiar with though.

One was a shade of yellow and brown, and seemed like an expansive area with nothing really within it, the color never changed, and almost took up an entire map on its own. Very small dots were scattered around in the center, however, I couldn't make out what they were, or even the color. The area I was observing didn't look like anywhere I had ever been, but it was very close to a large red marking, a drawing of a circle, bright red. Surrounding this shape, were what seemed to be large blue and white jagged shapes, similar to rocks. The color contrast was odd, from the previously mentioned combination of yellow and brown, right to blue and white with no space in between. That map with the large circle, it was at the top left corner, and below that, all the way from left to right, was that light brown and yellow. _That circle is so out of place from the rest of the maps, why is it even there?_

After standing still and pondering for a few seconds, I came up with a comfortable theory. _Is there where this place is? Inside of… whatever that is?_ My one working eye tried desperately to determine what exactly I was observing, until something clicked about the way each shape was drawn. _Inside a cave maybe..? Or a mountain?_ I glanced around my surroundings once more. _A cave would make a lot of sense, but if so, how did I get here? Who could have…_ I shook my head harshly, creating a dull ache. _Stop that, I can't just think about everything I don't know, I need to look for something to analyze, and go from there._ I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, attempting to settle my thoughts. Once they were reopened, the working half of my vision began to run down the middle of the map, looking for something I recognized, or at the very least, found familiar.

A few of the maps only had one solid color, that would be blue. It was easy for me to guess that these were bodies of water, leaking into all of the maps that surrounded them. I hadn't realized how much land I was in the process of looking at right now, this could be miles upon miles, depending on the scale. They seemed to be a slight bit smaller than the maps we used at the Nest, but I couldn't tell if that meant they covered more area, or they just simply created maps with a different method. I had nothing for reference in order for me to figure out, so I would have to come up with some other way to discover it. _It would be really nice to know the amount of land each of these went over, I would have a better idea of how much traveling I may have to do in order to get through one of them…_

Tsu, the first pokemon who greeted me here, stated that it was inhabited by nomads, constantly moving around. If this is their 'base' of sorts, and they're the ones gathering all of this location intel, they must have some history with this, what I assume is a cave. It seems as if they've done an unrealistic amount of traveling, all the way out and all the way back. That is, unless they had some way to meet halfway with other nomads, in which case, it wouldn't be quite as much, but still a hefty task. _They must have a lot of talent in this freezing cold cave if they've made so much progress._

My eye followed the map, slowly but surely, crossing a combination of what seemed to be mountains, followed by greenlands. Each group of trees representing a forest was illustrated on the map, though, most of the healthy areas seemed to consist of almost exclusively grass, with what looked like a few small civilizations here and there. That is, until I crossed the middle of the map, reaching the right side. Right away, I noticed the increased presence of forest-like areas. One in particular, spanned over two or three maps, the largest one by far.

…

I took a second, suddenly intrigued by this. I wasn't sure why, but I couldn't help but feel something tug at the inside of my brain, which intensified as I stared at the grouping of trees. TIme began to elapse, not accompanied by any movement on my part, I was stuck in a small trance of sorts. _That's not… where I lived, is it?_

The shape of the trees was way too blurry for me to solidify my thoughts, I didn't want to have any unneeded assumptions. I felt my right foreleg tremble a little, so I took a breath to stabilize myself. _If that's where I lived, then the size would make sense… But not only that, close by should be…_

My head slowly turned to the right, glancing up and down that side of the map at a much quicker and less careful pace as I did previously. I felt myself start to become more eager than before, wanting more than anything else to find something to grasp onto, something that would tell me where I was going. Sure enough, two maps over, one down, one right, I saw the edge of a town, its buildings made clear as day. Well, as clear as I could see anyway.

My tail slowly swayed behind me, and I felt a small smile grow on my face, feeling a light rush of excitement flow through my body. I recognized this portion of the group of maps, it was clear as day to me, this was both the forest I grew up in, and Myriad. Judging by the scale, it didn't seem that it was too far away, though, it was still quite the distance. _Better than wandering blindly at least, by a long shot at that._ I took a few steps back, letting my eye relax. I had to strain it a little to get a decent idea of what I was just looking at, but it was worth it for sure. _Probably would have been easier with both of them, but I got it done either way._

A decent amount of thoughts began pouring throughout my brain, ranging from the terrain I would have to cross to get there, to where I would find supplies for said trip, which very well could just be scrounging up whatever I find within nature on my way through. I'm experienced with it enough to be confident in my ability to not starve to death, and not get overly dehydrated, the only real problem is my physical condition. In this state, running into an aggressive and above-average strength feral could be bad news. Although, the adrenaline of the situation may carry me through it, that's not exactly something I have any desire to rely on. It should be an emergency function, not my only way of self defense. _I'm already barely being kept up by something similar, I need to focus on getting better as I go, not overdoing it to the point I can't move again._

 _Then again, I need to go through some areas I've never even seen before, could they be dangerous in ways other than feral contention? Perhaps some environmental hazards that I haven't thought of yet? Or maybe a civilization that holds hostile pokemon ready to attack any passersby? Maybe a stray group of travelers who see my condition and assume I'm a feral, or hostile myself? Or a different group, that may see my condition, and then try and take me in somewhere to heal when I need to move? What if I run into a Void member somewhere in the midst, and my body isn't healed enough to contend? Or worse, if I run into an admin of any kind, they would mop the floor with me even at full throttle. They may be looking for me too, since they want information and I just got away from them somehow, so there's a possibility I'll run into them. What if that happens, what do… I do… Then..?_

I felt my head spin a little, prompting me to shake it, and give a long, annoyed sigh. _One thing at a time Kuro… Come on…_ I took in a few deep breaths, draping my eyelids over both my working and non-working optical organs. _I really am a nervous wreck without someone to keep me in check…_

My thoughts drifted back to Naru for a second, but I shook them away. _I'll see her soon enough. Her and everyone. Just… focus on getting there for now Kuro. Don't let your mind wander._

My session of calm breathing went on for a few more minutes, before I finally felt calm enough to open my eyes once more. Once I did, I turned away from the map, looking up at the roof of the cave, my vision following the same trail of lights. _If I follow these, then I'll reach the exit. I know where I am now, and I know where I need to go. A straight shot Southeast form here. I just need to do it._

Without a moment of hesitation, I took a single step towards the trail once more, before bumping into something in front of me. The unexpected impact made me backpedal a bit, and observe what I could have walked into. Much to my confusion, there wasn't anything in front of me, at least, nothing my half-functional eyesight could see. I shook my skull around a little, and re-focused my vision, only for nothing to be seen. _I'm still going crazy, aren't I..?_

With an abrupt sigh, I began walking forward again, only to bump into the same invisible mass just like before. This time, I didn't stumble as much, but I still had to take a second and observe. _Maybe I'm not insane..? At least, not completely insane._

I slowly reached out with one of my forepaws, watching as it glided through the air effortlessly, not coming into contact with any resistance. I waved it back and forth rapidly, then trying to go slower, still nothing. I put my right forepaw down and tried tracing my exact motions with my left, not any sign of stopping my movement at all. I wouldn't be surprised if I looked like a lunatic while attempting this, and I would be even less surprised if my face did not look very impressed. _Maybe… I need more rest? As physically tired as I am, it seems like my head needs a break too…_

"Maybe I should go find Tsu and ask her if this is a side-effect..? Or someone else?" I asked aloud, tilting my head a little, causing one of my ears to droop. _Then again, am I just being overzealous? I mean, I was pretty close to death not very long ago, and here I am, walking around with nothing but the equivalent of a shot of adrenaline keeping me up. I'm eager to get back to everyone… But maybe a little too eager…_

"HEY!"

A very loud voice pierced through me, and I lost my balance, falling onto my side, re-intensifying the previous burning sensation I had. I let out a hiss, and grit my teeth on the ground. _Dear Arceus why…_ My eyes were shut tightly, a reflex from the sudden increase in a pain I thought had subsided for the most part. _I was told to be careful… This is what I get for not adhering enough…_

I took a moment to regain my composure, before another thought came to mind, probably the one that should have been immediate. _Who exactly just screamed at me..?_

I slowly lifted my eyelids, and brought back my still distorted vision to my environment. I expected something different than before, but just like last time, nothing. Nothing at all.

Before I went on a mental tangent to myself to stop being so paranoid, my eye caught a glimpse of a blurry shape in the air before me. Gray, almost like a cloud, an indecipherable shape that seemed to be moving at a slow pace and slowly transforming. I keenly stared at it, curious. Once ten or so seconds had passed, the cloud began to form into a shape of some kind, one that wasn't just a natural polygon. A spherical, light blue blob began to form, with a very small spike atop its odd physique. _That's… a pokemon, right?_

I rattled my head and pushed off of the ground, an ache pulsing through my limbs, one that I was largely able to ignore. The real challenge was pretending like I didn't feel as if I had just been lit on fire. I turned my eye to the shape once more, this time looking much more stable, light blue, a round, spherical head with a small spike eroding from the top. The bottom half of it, very thin at the neck, the lower parts of its body expanding outward. A shuppet I think, I didn't want to put full faith in my one eye quite yet.

I coughed a few times after standing, before clearing my throat.

"S-Sorry for scaring you!" Much to my surprise, I wasn't the first to talk. The pokemon I took as a shuppet floated down to the ground, and put its head down. "I have a hard time remembering when I'm invisible and when I can be seen, I thought you could see me and you just ignored me, sorry about that… heh…" Their voice sounded like a young male, very young, I would say a child. "I-I wanted to talk to you…"

Confusion was likely the best immediate word to describe all of my emotions at the given moment. "Talk to me..?" I replied to their apologetic tone with that of curiosity. "What do you-" I coughed. "What do you want to talk to me a-about?" I continued, my voice still not in the greatest shape. I still sounded my more raspy than ever before, though, it wasn't quite as severe as it was when I first awakened.

The shuppet rose his head and floated upwards, above me now. "I need to introduce myself first, I'm Ethos! An explorer!" He gave a toothy smile with an energetic tone. "Again, um… sorry for scaring you, but you're really interesting, and I wanna learn more about you!"

I was taken aback by the sudden rush from this pokemon, but I attempted to react accordingly. "Interesting? What exactly do you mean?" My confusion warped to intrigue quite quickly. "Also, my name is Kuro, nice to m-meet you Ethos." I bowed my head.

"I like your name!" Ethos flew around me in a quick circle, before settling in the air right in front of me, exactly where he was settling before. "And you say that like you aren't some weird… something! You came out of nowhere all glowy and pink and stuff! And then you just collapsed!" Ethos eagerly spoke, obviously having trouble holding still. _Wait, What..?_ "I found you by the entrance, and then the others came and brought you to safety! And they said they would fix you!"

It was hard to keep up with how quickly Ethos spoke, and further, how he was talking about something I was clueless about. "Hold on a s-second here…" I cleared my throat, ignoring the intense heat. "What did I look like when you saw me here? I was… glowing?" As soon as I asked that question, Ethos' eyes lit up, and I had a brief flashback of another piece of information passed down to me earlier. The child who found me apparently has a very overactive imagination, I had to consider that when listening to whatever Ethos might tell me.

"Okay okay," Ethos took in a deep breath. "So I heard some weird noises while messing around, and they sounded like they were coming from the entrance to our home, so I flew over there as fast as I could! Once I made it, I felt really… weird. Like I started to get scared of something, but I wasn't sure what exactly was scaring me." In an over exaggerated fashion, Ethos flew down to the ground and tucked his head against it, before shooting right back up. "But I faced whatever fear I had! Just like always! I kept on going, until right by the entrance, I saw something, it stuck out in my eyes, because it was a light, and it bounced off of all the floors and walls, it was amazing!" _Was he really the only one who found me..? Not that I have any reason to doubt him so far, that is, other than the comment about him earlier…_

"I slowly and carefully shifted my vision, until laying my eyes upon…" Ethos paused, and his reflection on the icy walls turned to shadow, before sinking into the ground, jetting towards me. Instinct kicked in and I flinched, but the shadow stopped a foot away. "You! But you didn't look like this! I mean, you had all the burns and bruises and stuff still, but you didn't look like that!" _Thank you for pointing out my obvious injuries…_ "You were all… glowy and stuff! The circles on your body weren't circles! They were stars!" _Pardon…?_

Here's where my skepticism began to show itself. Parts of one's body don't just spontaneously shift and change, especially not a part that may as well have been a branding that I didn't ask for. There's no way that they could change, it wasn't possible. Nothing that my dad went on about even mentioned the changing of a pokemon's shape or properties aside from evolution, and I'm fairly certain I didn't temporarily evolve.

"The stars you had weren't glowing that color either." Ethos flew really close to me, ever so slightly invading my personal space to the point of me resisting the urge to take a step back. "They had a pink shine instead! That's the color that was reflecting off of all the walls, so it had to have come from you! That's the only possibility!" Ethos seemed to have nothing but an ever increasing giddiness in his voice. "There's something cool about you! Where did you even come from? How did you get here? And… why are you here?" He flew around in quick circles with an excited smile. _For some reason… He kind of reminds me of Shine._

I gave the situation some thought, and figured that I may as well answer, though, I wasn't ready to accept everything he said as truth. "I came from somewhere… I don't actually k-know. I know what the place was, but I don't know where it is." _Perhaps that can be something to think about._ "I have literally no clue how I got here, as far as I knew, I was stuck in a loop I had no chance of escaping from. And I'm here because… I just ended up here. I don't think I had much of a choice in the matter." _I don't think…_

"So cool!" Ethos had sparkles in his eyes, slightly intimidating me for reasons outside of fear. "You don't even know how you got here, or where exactly you came from. You're covered in injuries, and you don't know why you're here… I want to figure this out!" _Good luck with that…_

"Is it okay if I ask you a question or two?" I suggested, hopefully taking away a little bit of Ethos' enthusiasm. It was sort of hard to handle, even if it was far from what I would call a negative trait.

"Yes yes! Please! I want to know what you want to know!" Ethos said, hardly able to coherently talk with his speed. I took a step back and sat down, wanting to rest my body a little if the two of us were going to talk.

"I was t-told that the pokemon that live here are nomads, does that mean you're one too?" Ethos nodded his head quickly and happily.

"Yup yup! Just like everyone else! But they've told me that I'm more passionate than all of them out together!" _That's not too hard to believe._ "Everyone here just does their own thing, but we have to leave in a small group, otherwise, it's too dangerous to travel around so much. We always stick together and if there's ever an unexpected situation, then stay close to your leader and devise a plan!" _He sounds like he's reciting a manuel, maybe that's what was taught for him to be eligible to go out with the rest._

"You go out there to explore too, right?" I questioned, wondering how practical it was for nomads to take someone so young out exploring with them. Then again, I've seen stranger things.

"Yep yep! I always do! I've been on almost as many journeys as the person who created this little cove for us all!" Ethos finally seemed to settle down and rest himself on the ground in front of me. "His name is Noland, and he went away a little while ago, but hasn't come back yet. BUt he taught me a lot about being safe and fighting feral and mean pokemon! He's really cool to talk to!" _Noland, they have a leader. I wonder where he could be?_

"Did your leader leave by himself?" I curiously asked, getting a little bit off topic, but I figured that gathering a bit more information couldn't hurt.

"Nope, he had a group with him! I'm not sure where they were headed though, somewhere to fill out more of the big map, we want to cover the world one day!" _Cover the world… that's a lot of traveling._ I looked at Ethos inquisitively. _He has so much passion for his age, it's a nice contrast to whatever I spent the last… who knows how long listening to. Nothing but laugher and… other things…_ I shivered.

"D-Do you know your way around this place? It seems pretty large, based on the walking I've done so far." I glanced around, from the wall map to the stalactites.

"Like the back of my paw! Except for one area. There's a really dark part of the cave that nobody has gone deeper into yet, because we aren't sure what's there, and we haven't been able to get everyone together so we can explore it safely. Other than that, I can fly around with my eyes closed and be perfectly okay!" _I don't think I need to meddle with that situation too much._ "I think you would like it here, you should stay a while! We can be friends!" Ethos put on a blinding smile. _I wish I could stick around and be your friend._

"I sort of… have somewhere I need to be, and I might know how to get there, so I don't see myself staying long." I confessed. "I'm not sure how healthy I need to be to make it all the way to my destination, so I might give it some time, but not much at all. Maybe enough so I can confidently walk without this… whatever thing that was given to me." I glanced back at Ethos, and his expression dampened a little, but still had a positive vibe.

"I understand! You probably have friends somewhere to go to, right?" He tilted his head and flew right up to me. "You should go see them! Friends always want to be near each other! Even when they're far away sometimes!"

I paused for a moment. _This… Is a child speaking to me. Inspiration could come from the strangest places, can't it?_

I let a small smile grow on my face. "You're right, so that's why I'm going to try and go see them again as soon as I can. Hopefully that's not t-too long."

"Good idea! You should tell them about me! Maybe, when I'm exploring, I'll see you!" Ethos' original tone had returned, nothing but glee present. As to not shoot his mood now, I gave him a nod. _I suppose… it's not impossible. I just hope doesn't look threatening to the Nest…_

My mind re-calibrated to what my goal was before, figure out how much I need to recover before I go. _Maybe I can exercise a bit, explore the outside of this area before I make a break for Myriad, that'll warm my muscles up._

As soon as I went back to a standing position, the burning in my back greatly intensified, and I was pushed forward, unable to see the cause.

* * *

Hello Readers! (Finally)

It's nice to be able to finally get a full chapter out again, it really is! I apologize for the break, things happened, many things that have left me in a very confusing state of emotions, however, I am stable enough to start pumping out content again! Even though I also just started my first semester in College, so uhm… I'll be more busy, but at least I can get myself to write now!

Some people know what happened, other don't, and that's fine by me. If you're curious, go ahead and ask, but don't expect the topic to last long, and expect a version of that is very blunt. :p But that's besides the point, no need to focus on what's happened recently, only on this chapter, which I'm happy to finally get out!

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through my breaks and whatnot, hopefully you're still with me here. :p I don't plan to give up on this story, not at all! There are many bumps in the road, but I'll still make it to the end! I swear! Just give it time! I love all of you people!

See You Next Chapter!


	47. Holding Out

**Kuro**

Never has sliding on ice burned as much as it did now.

I stuck my paw to the floor and dug my claws a few inches into the ice, cutting off the lack of friction I had and finally getting me to a halt. I shook my head and stood, attempting to ignore the intense heat created by my injuries. My sight was blurry and out of focus, but regardless, I looked to the source of what had just collided with my back, which looked something like a cranidos, but I couldn't be certain with my less than viable vision. I blinked a number of times, slowly calibrating what I could see. I was correct in my assumption of a crainidos, but I didn't notice that they were bruised, all up their left arm, and had blood leaking from their mouth.

My body tensed and I glanced around, looking for two things: The source of damage on this pokemon, and Ethos. Without too much effort, I spotted Ethos rampantly flying to the downed crainidos, mumbling something that I couldn't quite make out. I couldn't relax my muscles, I was now on-guard for anything. Not that I was in any condition at all to defend myself, but it was better than being a sitting duck.

Time passed, and nothing happened. Ethos was still checking the wounds of the newly entered crainidos, luckily seeming to be okay. I felt anxiety flow to my head. In order to not let it get to me, I slowly walked over to the other two, and stood behind them.

"Who did this!?" Ethos went from a whisper to a shout in one sentence. Now that I had a closer look, the crainidos' arm was swelling, and very well could have been broken. _Did they come back from exploring with that injury? Or is it recent..? And why did they fly into my back like that..?_

I took a breath, trying to relax and await an answer to Ethos' question.

"I-I don't know him, but he got my group too. None of them are dead, but they're hurt worse than me… Please go and get help!" The cranidos reached his good arm out, pointing to the direction of the area's entrance.

Ethos nodded quickly and flew a few feet into the air. "I'll go get them! Hold tight!" Without another word, Ethos soared through the cave, much quicker than I anticipated him to be able to move. HIs voice was also very, authoritative. He sounded like he knew what he was doing. _Despite him being a child, Ethos seems like he's been through this a few times… Hopefully that's a good thing rather than bad._

I glanced down at the injured pokemon once more. He had a pained expression, clearly not having the best day with what very well might be a broken arm. _At the very least… It looks like it could have been worse. If someone attacked him had the ability to break his arm and hasn't killed him yet, then at least he made it out._

I began to much more easily dismiss the sore and burning sensation all over my body, which could be from an increase in adrenaline from the situation. I was nervous, dare I say quite scared. I know these nomads likely have security procedures if they get attacked, they seemed like the type of group to do that. I shouldn't have been as unsure of the whole situation as I was, but I couldn't help but think of the worst possible outcomes. _I still don't know enough about this place to feel secure… For all I know, there could be families here, living safely away from the public eye, after all, Ethos is a child, he very well could have parents here somewhere…_

I needed to distract myself from my lingering thoughts. "Hey, can I ask what the species of pokemon who did this to you and your group is?" I asked to the downed crainidos next to me.

He turned his head in my direction, and we locked eyes. I could feel him scanning me, taking in every detail of my body. Part of me felt insecure of the fact that I was covered in wounds that I haven't really explained to anyone yet, and the fact that one of my eyes matches the color of a marshmallow. These nomads may be strict about their security, so when this pokemon realized that I'm an outsider, he must have been skeptical. "There were two of them, but we only made out one, the other was in the background." He told me, his voice straining. "One was a hitmonchan, that's all I know. He broke my arm and did even worse to my group…" He looked down in defeat, while my eyes widened.

 _There's no way he's talking about the same one that immediately comes to my mind… No way… Right..?_

A cackle broke out in the cave, a loud one. My eyes weren't in the direction it came from, and my hesitation to turn them was all too evident. My ears twitched and folded down a little, not a reaction I usually have to anything, even when I'm terrified. I grit my teeth, much harder than I initially intended, and I felt my forelegs begin to shake, not out of weariness like before. _There's no way this is actually happening…_

I slowly turned my head, revealing the figure of a hitmonchan, one that made me sharpen my stare. My legs were visibly unstable now, primely my two front ones. A look of intrigue spread across the face of the attacker, before a smile broke free, a terrifying one. Even I could recognize him by face now, he's walked into my holding cell plenty of times. Admittedly, I nearly forgot the name he goes by at the Void, but it was never completely free from my mind, as I've heard it more times than I wish I had. _And here I thought I wouldn't have any roadblocks… wishful thinking that something would actually go right…_

I made sure I was in front of the injured crainidos, attempting to blank my mind of all distractions as Nekro approached.

"You've gotta be kidding me… How insane!" Laughter broke through in echos, which brought shivers down my back. "You go missing, and then not two days later, I come across you… Dear Arceus that's incredible!"

For some reason, I couldn't find it in me to speak. It was difficult, finding words when fear was beginning to consume most of your mind. I wasn't scared of him specifically, if anything, I was scared of my own condition. I wasn't fit to fight anyone, but I knew for a fact that it wasn't that simple. I couldn't just say that and hope someone else takes care of the problem, I was the only one there, along with an injured nomad. I assumed the nomads had ample fighting experience, and were able to hold their own, but if their whole group was taken out by Nekro, than I might have been mistaken in that assumption. _What… can I do..?_

"Wordless? I figured you would have something to say to me after everything that's happened over the last, what, two weeks?" _Two weeks..? That's how long I was stuck there..?_ "Not that I'm complaining, the less you talk, the less you irritate me." Nekro slowly walked towards me, not wasting any time. I gulped, not caring about the slow, painful lump in my throat it instigated. "I thought you were confident? That I wasn't anything to you? That you could knock me out with your eyes closed? You're not acting like you would previously." He chuckled, and I found myself frozen. _What can I do..? What..?_

Nekro stopped walking, about five feet away, giving me a death glare. I returned the same expression, however, I wasn't intimidating anyone with my quivering forelegs. "Where's the gusto you showed me when we first met, huh? Where?" He put on a teasing tone, as if trying to make me angry. Though, I was too afraid to feel anything else at the moment. _What can I do? How can I get out of this..? How can I stall him until help from Ethos gets here..? Where is the second threat..?_

"Maybe your silence irritates me more than you spouting your usual crap…" Nekro grumbled. "Come on! What's going through your head!?" _Nothing but fear._ "Why are you here!?" _I don't know._ "How did you get here!? How did you escape!?" _I don't know. I don't know._ "Anything! I'm all ears!"

Nekro's questions were answered with silence at first. I didn't know how to answer, I couldn't answer anything he asked. I couldn't make up random nonsense, I didn't have the mental capacity for that right now. What use would opening my mouth really do? All I would do is satisfy him with what will likely be a quiet and clearly intimidated voice. What point was there in fighting a verbal battle with him right now? _Buying time…_

I took a deep breath, trying to drown out my fear at least a small amount. "Why I'm here and how I did it… T-That doesn't matter." I spoke, raspy as ever. "Why are you? Why would the Void send a practically incapable member somewhere with only one other p-pokemon?" It was a stupid question to ask and expect an answer, but I didn't really need one, I only needed time. _However I can get it…_

"Incapable? Oh I wouldn't say that." Nekro replied with a cackle that matched his earlier one, as he lifted his arm and pointed behind me, at the injured crainidos. "Does that look like I haven't accomplished anything here? Of course it doesn't! You're underestimating my abilities!" _You're overestimating them…_ "How would you know I'm incapable? If I remember correctly, you haven't tried battling me since I was picked up by the Void. All you did was get a lucky bite off while you were chained up, and that was nothing!"

"Your screams back then would s-say otherwise." I retorted, replaying the memory in my head.

"So I wasn't used to having my flesh ripped off, that doesn't mean it affected me badly. Not with the Void's medical resources!" _Quit gloating about being in a monsterous organization…_ "They could heal anything they really want, so long as you don't get permanently damaged!" After listening to Nekro's words, I glanced down his body, my unclear vision being able to pick up small marking all down his chest, leading to his stomach.

I found it in myself to grin. "The where did those w-wounds come from? They don't look fully healed to me, especially if I, of all pokemon, c-can see them with one eye dead." I briefly wondered if talking with a provocative attitude was the right move, but it's not like I could think of any other way to keep him talking.

Instead of the irritated response I expected, I was met with an even bigger smile. "Maybe scars can't blend in with my body, even with the Void's masterful methods." Nekro's eyes narrowed, staring at only me and nothing else. "You really would love to know where these wounds came from, wouldn't you?" His tone sent a chill through my whole body. There was something menacing about it, not the vibe I've gotten from him at any other time.

I couldn't think of anything to say. He was egging me on to say something, anything at all. Yet, my curiosity regarding where he was going with this kept me from being able to properly think. My head rushed from one possibility to the next, but in the small amount of time I was actually able to see him before this, I know for a fact those wounds weren't present. _He's leading me on like I should know how he was hurt… But how would I know that..?_

"Still having a hard time talking? Not even a guess? How absurd!" Nekro took one step closer, and I crouched down as if I were about to attack him. Combat of any kind was not a very good idea in my condition, but I was running out of options. "Maybe I can tell you, and then I can take you back to the Void, right where you belong." I took a breath, resisting the cold fear brought by my recent memories.

Nekro held up one of his hands, and slowly dragged it down his chest, over each of the small spots that covered his midsection. "These came from a very painful attack, one that caught me off guard, and made me despise someone even more than I already do!" He spat the last few words in that sentence. "The one who hit me with this attack? Oh you know them, you know them better than anyone else I would bet." My mind went null for just a second as his words clicked in my head. "Naru, that bitch of a glaceon? She did it, not before I got some nice damage in though!"

My claws clutched into the ice below me harder than ever, and my glare on Nekro increased in intensity. I had an extreme urge to lunge at him, to bite into his neck as hard as I could, to claw into his chest and re-irritate the wounds already given to him by Naru. I wanted him to feel pain.

"I told you to stay away…" My voice was low, almost like a growl. I hated sounding like this, it reminded me of a bloodthirsty animal, but I couldn't help it. It took a lot to make me angry, and this crossed that line ten times over. "I swear I'll..!" I coughed roughly, a consequence for raising my voice when I shouldn't have. All of the weight in one of my forepaws dropped, and I pressed my head to the ground, breathing heavily. He totally broke my composure, whatever amount of sustain I had before vanished in an instant. I felt each of my painful sensations gather once more, causing me to grit my teeth in an effort to resist it.

I was met with nothing more than another burst of laughter. "You'll do what now? Don't try and make threats when you can't even finish a full sentence!" I heard Nekro's feet clash against the ice, coming closer to me. "I should take you right back to the cell we just had you in, and continue your interrogation. Who knows? Maybe your body will give out and you'll just up and die, then you won't have to suffer through any more torture!"

It was upsetting to look back on, but there was a point in there when I just wanted them to kill me. I stopped caring, but it was only brief. I won't get captured, just to die without anyone in the Nest knowing. That isn't an option. The grasp I had over my emotions was slowly but surely slipping, I began to feel something very vaguely familiar. Something I felt back when I walked in on that disgusting sight on the outskirts of Myriad. I didn't know how to describe it, wanting someone else in pain, wanting them hurt. I only knew one feeling I could attribute it to. Bloodlust.

"Maybe I should knock you around before taking you back, I like making you feel pain." I heard another step, closer than before. _I'm in no condition to fight… But he's not taking me back there, I won't let it happen. No matter what._

I slowly brought my eyes up, piercing Nekro with my vision. _Especially not by you._

I couldn't be an aggressor in this confrontation, it wasn't practical for me to make a move on him, if he would just take whatever minimal force I hit him with, and counter. That being said, I'm nowhere near my usual level of agility, so I very likely can't last in a battle via evasion, my legs would give out before Ethos made it back. If I lose my ability to move, I would just be picked up and carried right back to the Void again, the place I just suffered in for apparently two weeks. Worse than that, I wouldn't be able to get back to the Nest and let everyone know that I'm alright. Well, as alright as I can be with one working eye and a bunch of burn marks.

Nekro and I gazed at each other, neither one breaking from the other. _If only he didn't get enhancements from the Void… I wouldn't be worried at all. But, if I don't do anything stupid, and I can hold out a little, he still shouldn't be a problem. I hope…_

"You're not actually going to try and fight, are you?" Nekro scoffed. "You look like you can barely walk!" _Not incorrect…_

If I could keep the talking up, the more the better. I wanted time, not an even fight. "I don't need stable limbs t-to handle you. Didn't the first time we meet show you that?" I shot back, tempted to make a false remark about how I wasn't afraid at all, but he would likely see through it.

"The first time? Back when I didn't have these chemicals in me and back when you were healthy? I'm afraid that didn't show me anything." Nekro shifted his stance, putting one leg forward and raising his fist. "Things are different now, aren't they?" He followed with an evil smile.

He was right, things were a lot different. But plenty happened to be the same too. "For you to think that our difference in physical c-condition right now is the deciding factor is proof of what I said."

Nekro looked as if he was resisting the urge to burst out into amusing laughter. "Don't hit me with that. You can hardly move, I would say that's prettttty devastating to your side."

"This is why you really aren't a t-threat, no matter how artificially strong the Void makes you." I observed his body once more, primely his previous injuries. "You should already know. You said you damaged Naru… But I'm willing to be she beat the living crap out of you afterwards."

Nekro's face contorted to one of anger. "Like you know anything of what happened! A lucky attack is a lucky attack, that was that!" I definitely struck a nerve with that one.

"I know that you have scars from it, and I know exactly how she fights. I-I would say I have a good idea of how easily she could deal with you." I took a breath, and took a step forward. "You're physically stronger than her and I, but you let your alpha mindset get to your head, that's what makes you as threatening as a feather to the Nest, to any Raven."

"Fine, think that, and shut up!"

A flurry of risky options appeared in my head, choices that I might be able to make, now that I had him flustered. Some of them were reasonable, like trying to capitalize on his anger and provoke a verbal assault instead of a physical one. Others in my head, they appeared, were outright stupid when it came to the amount of risk associated with them, but at the same time, I would be able to assure that the injured crainidos behind me wouldn't get hurt in the exchange. At least, make it more likely. I contemplated the ideas in my head, quickly scanning through each of them. I also received a small flashback, which was odd to me. I thought of the applicants' tournament, when I met up with Kage and battled him. A thought occurred to me right after.

 _Since when have I ever cared about risk in a fight?_

Seizing Nekro's moment of distraction, I put pressure on my legs, bringing more pain than I would have liked. Pushing off of the ice as hard as I could, I launched myself at Nekro, headbutting him in the stomach as hard as I could. I heard a small grunt, but one that sounded like it came more from annoyance than pain. I rolled onto to the ground, sliding a few feet away, just in time to avoid the impact from his fist. A dull ache in my head formed, and my ears began ringing a litte. _Maybe… I misinterpreted how much any amount of forceful contact would hurt…_

I glared at Nekro, ignoring my heavily shaking body. He returned my stare, smiling. "Didn't even feel a thing. What a rash move on your part!" He began sprinting towards me as his sentence finished, and I prepared myself.

My sight was blurry, I didn't consider how this would affect my ability to fight, but I could still make out shapes, and that was enough. I carefully observed the movements of Nekro's body as he approached, it seemed as if time had slowed down for me to pick apart every fallacy I found with his positioning, and the way he moved. I had to push my nerves aside, and stay sharp in every way I could.

My vision followed Nekro, particularly his arms. By the time he was close enough to jam his fist into my skull, I preemptively slid my body to the side, barely avoiding the punch that I predicted. Right after the full swing of his right arm finished, I ducked down, dodging a swipe from his left. He recovered quickly, and turned to face me directly, jabbing both of his fists at me one after the other, both I managed to barely get away from.

After I narrowly danced around his initial onslaught, I pushed off of the ice below me with my forepaws, jumping back a few feet, and trying to disregard the increase in soreness it brought. With shaky legs, I took a breath and refocused on Nekro once again. The stare that he gave me was a bit of a confused one, or maybe one of intrigue. Whatever his expression was, it justified a pause in his movements, he didn't immediately sprint after me again, not like the first time.

Sadly, said pause only lasted a few seconds, and he was right after me once more. Nekro threw his left arm back and tried to hit me head on, as predictably as possible. I leaned to the side and avoided it, his arm bushing against my ear. He quickly halted his momentum and tried an uppercut with his right arm, which I sidestepped just as easily as the rest of his impromptu attacks. Just like before, I crouched, and put some distance between us, standing with as stable a stance as I could muster.

Nekro let out a growl. "Stop with the cat and mouse game and attack me already!" As if he was trying to mirror his last few attacks, he dashed at me once more, I dodged each one of his very telegraphed swings, then jumped away, just like before. I felt heavier, each movement took more and more effort to pull off, but I could manage either way. I had to stall somehow, and exploiting whatever I could to avoid a head-on fight was my best chance.

"Quit being so slippery!" Nekro went to shouting, his irritation evident. "You can't run away forever, you're just delaying your own demise!"

Him getting angry was a positive, he was much more sloppy when angry. "With the way you fight, I p-probably can run away forever." I took a breath, hoping to stall out the need to dodge too quickly in succession. "Physical strength can't make up for lack of combative ability."

Nekro scoffed at me. "How do you think I took out the group before you? You'll tell me I don't have any combative ability after seeing their sorry state?"

"Not to be rude to them, but they likely haven't seen much more combat than you, which is the only reason y-you could do anything to them." I coughed a few times, my throat burning. "Anyone who has actual training in the matter, training from pokemon w-who know what they're doing, they take an easy advantage."

Nekro didn't look very pleased with my lecturing. "Your training didn't help you much when it came to being in the Void, did it? You were chained up, completely stuck in place. How would your training get you out of that one? It couldn't, and you were stuck until some random miracle happened, causing you to somehow, someway, get out of there." _That's hardly relevant to anything I just said…_

"And what would you have done in that s-situation? Tried to break out with brute force, and then get captured again before you made it halfway out of the facility?" I questioned.

"It doesn't matter what I would have done, because I'll never be in that position." Nekro chuckled, as if he actually made a good point. "There's only so much your training can do for you!"

"It's not just t-the training." I let out another cough, this one hurting less. "You were upgraded by the Void, only artificially. Right after that, you went straight into battles, thinking pumped up muscles were enough to hold your own. Have you ever even been in an actual, a real life or death situation? One you needed to get yourself out of, and think on a whim?" I paused, receiving nothing but silence. "You haven't, you have no experience whatsoever. You don't know how to properly fight someone else, anybody who does will easily counter everything you try and do."

Nekro seemed to be at a loss for words, as if he was actually listening to what I was saying and not passing it off as nonsense. He wasn't sprinting at me, it almost looked like he was lost in thought. I must have made a point to him, one that actually stuck for once. _That could be a negative thing too… but it's still buying time._

Even after giving a lecture about experience in battles, I managed to make one of the most simple and easy mistakes to avoid. I was still staring at Nekro just as before, but there was something different about me. I wasn't tense, my legs were relaxed, as was most of my body. I totally let my guard down.

Just like that, Nekro lunged at me, and planting his fist right into the center of my chest, seemingly as hard as he could. For just a second, I was in shock, I was totally taken off-guard. Once that shock wore off, I felt intense pressure coming from the impact of his attack, pressure that make me take a harsh, thin breath, then collapse to the icy floor.

My body was almost null, I couldn't move at all. I was totally stuck in place. My breathing was quick, and I was hardly taking in any oxygen. My previously unoptimized vision began to thin out, and was back to being as blurry as possible. I could hardly make out shapes anymore, only what looked like a very poorly painted picture. In that picture, I could see Nekro's legs, the icy ground, almost looking like slushed water. The walls, looking very similar to the ground below us all.

Finally, a collection of more indecipherable shapes, far off in the distance. With only one functioning eye, no amount of focusing could allow me to be certain of what I was looking at, but through the intense ringing in my ears, at the very least, I could tell that the shapes were talking, even if it sounded like mumbles. I glanced up at Nekro, who turned to the collection of shapes, putting his back to me. My vision blurred even more than previously, and I felt my consciousness begin to slowly but surely stray away.

I grit my teeth hard, willing myself to stay conscious as much as I could. It was painful, very painful, but I barely kept it up. The shape closest to me, Nekro, was launched back, right above me. I felt a heavy gust of wind with his movement, and heard a fuzzy crash in the background. I would have turned my head to look for him, but I quite literally couldn't move. As heavy as my eyelids were, I held out, trying to control my breathing, and make it so I wouldn't have a lack of oxygen. _At least I bought enough time… I think…_

Another shape, coming from out of my sight, flew passed me, colliding with the ground harshly. Their head had a small amount of read leaking off of it, which I assumed to be blood. The shape didn't look like Nekro, it was too short to be him, and didn't have the same colors. _Which would mean… Nekro is still fighting them off..?_

I had no idea the exact number of what I assumed were reinforcements from Ethos, but there were a decent amount, they should have been able to easily overpower Nekro. Then again, I already knew that he managed to take out one group, and he didn't have a scratch on him afterwards, which was concerning. These pokemon were nomads, explorers, so I assumed they had some amount of prowess when it came to fighting too. Granted, being resourceful and effectively exploring doesn't necessarily mean you would have to fight anything off that wasn't a feral. Further, if they grouped up on said ferals, they may not have gotten any real, good experience out of it. _If that's the case, then this situation is more dire than I thought…_

I wanted more than anything to be able to move. If I had any amount of stamina, I could drive Nekro away. I was confident in that. He outmatched me by miles when it comes to physical abilities, but he was too sloppy with his fighting to actually pose a threat to me. That is, unless I'm totally drained of stamina.

As more time passed, my ears perked to every yell, every scream, almost agonizing squeals. I couldn't recognize any of them by voice, but non sounded even remotely similar to Nekro. That wasn't a good sign. I didn't like to underestimate others, but it seemed as if these nomads weren't able to truly hold their own against a product of the Void. _And there's still the second one… Wherever they may be…_

I noticed yet another blob of colors in my sight, this one moving around quickly and erratically. It was approaching me at a quick rate, before coming within a few feet. Mumbles came from them, but I couldn't make out any words. I felt my hearing slowly start to fade more and more, and I felt myself get closer and closer to unconsciousness. Before I succumbed to it though, the new shape was right in front of my face, and I began to decipher who it was. _Ethos..?_

I would have tried to call out to him if I had any confidence in my ability to talk. He looked as if he was yelling, and despite being right next to me, I couldn't make out one clear work. It almost sounded like I was underwater, alongside a steady ringing in my ear. I suppose this is what it was like to be a fatigued as physically possible.

I felt a few nudges on the edges of my mouth, from somewhere I couldn't quite see. I tried to focus on looking at Ethos, and I noticed his eyes very lightly glowing a strange purple color. Shortly after, the nudges began to feel more forceful, until something was practically shoved into my mouth. It felt like a packet, something plastic, and my teeth were able to move it around easily, almost as if they were sinking into it, but not breaking it. The sensation was odd, I couldn't tell what it was exactly. I figured though, it was likely that Ethos was the one trying to give me whatever this was. Because of that, I decided to trust that I wasn't being poisoned right now.

Slowly, I bit down harder on the small packet, feeling its two ends expand as I continued to pressure what felt like the middle. With enough effort, I felt a small pop, and from inside the plastic, came a slush of liquid. It didn't have the most pleasant taste, something akin to very strong mint leaves. Regardless of that, I swallowed what I could, which was more than I was expecting, considering the fact that I was laying on my side, barely keeping awake. I also consumed a bit of the plastic, but I hoped that wouldn't be an issue.

It wasn't clear what exactly I just willingly put into my body, and to be honest, my desperation to do something in this situation may have very easily gotten dangerous, considering that I just drank whatever I just did. All I could do though is hope for the best that my trust in Ethos wasn't misplaced, and something good would come of it.

Just like that, about a minute passed, nothing different at all. Different yelps and crashes were behind me, along with almost constant bursts of wind and occasional rises in temperature. Another minute passed, mirroring the first completely. Five minutes, each one feeling like an hour, and nothing had changed, only the speed in which I heard the commotion. It was slowing down, ever so slightly.

All of a sudden, I felt as if I was dunked in a lake of ice cold water. My eyes shot open, and an extreme chill ran down my entire body, causing me to shiver. I felt my fatigue, and my sore muscles almost fade away, as if it was being sapped out of me. It didn't feel natural though, not like when I took the drug provided to me after getting beaten up by Grace. That one felt smooth, and took away all of my lingering pain in an instant. This, it's like all of the pain worsened intensely, before slowly fading out. I suppressed the urge to shriek at the sudden spike, and took heavy breaths during the slow and admittedly agonizing cooldown of pain. My bones began to feel loose, and I shifted my forelegs in front of my head a little. My vision, instead of looking like I was seeing the world through a blurry glass, it cleared. Granted it wasn't perfect, as only one of my eyes worked, but I could make everything out, I could scan my surroundings, starting with the seemingly unconscious cranidos on the ground in front of me. Just like that, I felt immediately flared up, my emotions becoming intense.

I pushed myself off of the ground with a small hop, and harshly shook my head. My breathing was still heavy, as I took a moment to gaze in circles. I didn't catch any sight of Ethos, but I did see many different species of pokemon, of all sized, collapsed on the ground in scattered places. My eye shot from one to the next, before falling on the ones still standing.

A kricketune, and a scyther, both trying to attack Nekro. However, the two didn't make any progress, as Nekro shook off any small blows they did land, and then countered, his attacks hurting much more. The bugs let out a synchronized scream and fell back a little, as some of the downed pokemon around me began to rise, still not finished. _They're just throwing themselves at him, stop being such idiots please!_

I glared at Nekro, him not noticing that I stood up. A wave of adrenaline pushed through me, and I grit my teeth. My claws were drawn and already dug into the ice below, the ice now sporting numerous cracks all around, both the walls and the floor. I let out a growl, almost not being able to contain it, and I lunged at the hitmonchan I suddenly couldn't stand even the sight of.

Catching him completely off-guard, I jammed my head into the center of his body, and released a ball of condensed energy into him at point blank, gaining a surprise scream as he flew back, straight into one of the walls. He quickly detached himself from said wall and turned to look at me, his face distorting to one of extreme confusion.

"W-Why are you up all of a sudden!?" He shouted at me, before taking a hand and rubbing the area I just attacked. My muscles tensed up, and I growled again, feeling unnaturally angry, which didn't go unnoticed by Nekro. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He spoke in a much quieter voice this time, sounding almost intimidated.

I questioned why he would suddenly change his tone, but a glance downward revealed something to that surprised me just as much. Around my leg and moving upward, there was an odd aura, a dark, translucent one. It was black and shadow-like, not having a definite shape, but surrounding my leg regardless, and likely the rest of my body.

I shook it off very quickly after noticing it. "Who else is here with you?" I asked Nekro, restraining myself from yelling. After I spoke, I began to tread towards him again, holding back from another full on lunge.

Nekro's face hardened once more. "I'm sure you'll find out on your way back to the Void." He brushed off the previous blow and took a stance towards me. "I don't know what invigorated you so much, but it won't help you."

I stopped walking, standing roughly the same distance he stood from me when this confrontation started. "We'll see about that." I replied, crouching down.

With my newly found energy, I sprinted right towards Nekro, being the aggressor this time. He attempted to counter my rush with a swing from his right fist, but I rolled out of the way and jabbed the left side of his midsection with my paw roughly. Nekro flinched, but nothing more, before taking a step back and swinging again, this time, catching me off-guard a little. I barely moved my head out of the way, his attack only grazing my cheek. I slid behind him and attempted another quick jab, but he read it and avoided, his left fist glowing brightly. With a smirk, he threw it to the ground, releasing a bright ball to contact the ice, shattering the surface, and sending a flurry of small shards at me. In the half-second I had to react, I drew out my two tendrils and crossed them over my body, a large number of small icy pieces piercing them, but not getting to my body. I winced at the pain they caused, but it wasn't enough to keep me back.

Without warning, I slammed one of my tendrils into the same spot I landed a light attack on earlier, making Nekro's face contort in pain. He threw another punch, aimed primarily at my chest, and I caught it with my second tendril, wrapping it around his arm and tightening my grip. I spun my body in a half-circle and tossed him aside, before slamming my other tendril into the ground behind me, flying right after him. Once I was right above Nekro in the air, I dove down onto him and shoved him roughly onto the ice, cracking even more of the polished floor. Without giving him a chance to react, I threw my head back, taking in a breath, before firing a dark pulse off right down on him, again, at point blank.

This time, I managed to get an actual yelp of pain out of him as I jumped back and retracted my tendrils. My body was still emitting the same odd glow, and I had no idea what the cause was, but I didn't care, I was too tunnel-visioned on this fight. It didn't take Nekro long to rise off of the ground, and give me an angry gaze, before standing up again. I ran forward, wanting to start another assault. Nekro tried to take a step in my direction, but he stumbled, thanks to the small shard stuck in his ankle, and starting falling over right over me. Using the unexpected opening, I jumped up and slammed my head into his stomach, tossing him into the air and sending him back, slamming into the ground once more.

This time, he let out more of an angry shout, rather than one of pain, before rapidly standing again. While staring at him, watching him struggle to keep up, for some reason, I grinned.

"Maybe you should watch your own attacks, they can be just as hazardous to you as they are to me." I spoke in a taunting tone. Nekro didn't take too kindly to the teasing.

"Shut your damn mouth before I strangle you!" He slapped himself across the face. "You think it's that easy to just take advantage of me? I'll prove you otherwise!"

Both of us re-entered our battle stances, staring one another down. _If he keeps going with this, it'll be easy to end it._

"That's enough, stop wasting time."

Before one of us could bolt towards the other, a new voice chimed in, one that surprisingly enough, I recognized. It had been a long time, so I had to take a second to think of who it may be, but it registered without too much difficulty.

Nekro turned around, facing someone I hadn't seen since shortly after I left my home for the first time. "You realize this he's a target with high-priority information, right? Taking him in isn't a waste!" _Seems like he sounds irritable even around his co-workers._

The gallade kept walking until he was side by side with Nekro, and I stared at the duo. He looked exactly the same as he did before, but his tone of voice was strange to me. It was calm, it wasn't angry, contrary to when I spoke to him, and the story I heard from the Nest. "Target or not, that's not why we're here, so we can't concern ourselves with it. Not now." The gallade turned his eyes to me, and shared a moment of contact with mine. _He looks the same, but his attitude seems a lot different. Maybe nothing has made him angry yet, not even seeing me._

"I'm not fond of this one either, but that doesn't matter. We have a task to do, and we're going to do it." The gallade spoke with a serious tone.

"I know that already, I don't need you bossing me around." Nekro sighed in annoyance. "I still think it's a waste to let a target we happened to come across go."

I stayed in my stance, ready for anything unexpected that may happen. Much to my surprise, none of the pokemon who were still conscious around us felt the need to intervene, perhaps because they didn't know how.

Through the now thick atmosphere, I found it in myself to speak. "What does the Void want with a place like this?" I asked in the general direction of the other two. I began feeling mentally sour, and I disliked it.

"We're here as collectors." The gallade stepped forward, facing me. "Not to collect you, to collect someone else, and some minerals deep in this area. That being said, your location will be relayed."

I wasn't actually expecting a direct answer to be honest. "Why are you here to collect someone? I doubt they did anything to warrant it." I said with a growl.

"None of your concern. Stay out of the way, don't make this annoying." He looked down at me, almost without emotion. "We should be in and out quickly, so long as you don't interfere with us."

A wave of confusion rushed through me. This gallade was acting miles different than who I knew him as, almost like he was a completely different pokemon. He sounded mellow, not enraged like before. He didn't sound like himself, he sounded robotic, breeding indecisive thoughts in me. I couldn't sift through my thoughts though, I had a hard time focusing, I was too angry.

"Who are you here to ta-" Before I could finish my sentence, the gallade waved one of his blades in the air, creating very thin, purple rings in the air.

They traveled around, speeding through the air quickly. They tightened, the center of the circles narrowing in an instant in a certain spot between the wall and myself. Following the closure of the rings was a high-pitched scream, causing my body to jump, as a shuppet became visible in the middle of the rings.

* * *

Hello Readers!

I did it! I got a chapter out on time! Yay! Hopefully you enjoy it, and I'm sorry for the large chunks of only Kuro's perspective, there's a lot going on with him and I need to think of a better way to split it up without breaking the tension completely, which I'm sure I'll manage by next chapter. -w-

Thank you for reading! I'm always open to talk!  
See You Next Chapter!


	48. Control

**?**

Pacing. Pacing.

Confusing thoughts every now and then were normal, though not common for me, so when they occured, handling them brought uneasy feelings. I had just finished cleaning my office space, clearing out all of the unnecessary documents that nobody else was to see. Otherwise, the situation would get complicated rather quickly. They weren't organized, but that's a task I would deal with another time, not when I had too many other worries present. I wasn't particularly concerned with me being found out, even if I was, I could safely retreat to an unknown location, and just start again. I did it once, who's to say it's not replicable?

A lack of resources was becoming evident, the medical ward was using them up at a quick and consistent rate. That may have been their job, but I wouldn't mind them slowing down just a little. I could always send others to get more, but the only places that hold these elements are far off, and would require time, a lot more time than I was willing to waste. It's not like I absolutely couldn't take it slow, but I wasn't fond of that approach. If I could help it, I would like to keep planning out more jobs to complete to further my control.

I shivered, thinking of the possibility that another group would rise up, out of nowhere, because I ended up missing a growing power. I knew it wasn't likely, but the chance was still there, someplace, a secretly growing threat. I had everyone here under command though, I could prevent whoever may oppose with relative ease, so long as I don't screw anything up, and mess with my course of action. _Even if I do end up messing up, I can always start again, from scratch, and make it happen just like before._

As proud as I was about my achievements, I was equally stumped in other areas. Such as, how to increase our range without acting too sketchy. My second in command was an issue for me just as much as he contributed to everything. Skeptical pokemon were always a concern, and he certainly is one of them, but he hasn't nabbed onto the whole story yet. He's discovered bits and pieces, nothing more, he can't even make sense of any of them. I wouldn't let him find out about anything else, not now, and not for future reference. I couldn't afford any risks, not with such a fragile thing to hide. One hint, and it all goes under.

Sometimes I wonder, how I managed to build everything I have, and yet, not let a single one here latch onto what I may be doing. Not that I was complaining about my own capabilities to be shady, it just surprised me, how I haven't needed to start over yet. The more I have control the better, so if I can stay like this for the rest of my life, I'll be content. I can keep on having my trades and desires, keep having my tasks completed without me stepping in to accomplish them first-hand, and that's all I need. I get to stay in control of everything, and that's the most important aspect of it all.

 _Everyone needs a mediator, everyone._

* * *

 **Luna**

The echoing steps in the hallways began to annoy me. I couldn't think of any drawbacks to practically never leaving your soundproof personal room, it took ten minutes of being out to find one. I needed to check up on a few things though, the security was worth the general annoyance.

The mawile we captured a while back and now control showed no signs of breaking out of the state I put him under, that was a plus. That technique didn't always work, I was excited to see it actually stick for once, he must have truly given up once he was taken in by us, his mind has given no attempt at resistance whatsoever.

The ability to control another's mind, body, and soul. What a special and powerful tactic it is, for many, many situations. Sneaking into someone else's psyche is supposed to be exclusive to very talented psychics, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for those of different types. Dark types, being somewhat related to psychics in the first place, have an easy time mastering a technique similar to theirs, as long as you don't mind the idea of it. The victim of the attack can resist, and contrary to what most think, it's relatively easy to break out of. You merely need to will yourself into it, and not give up on your own life. Surrendering yourself to it, well, the chances of you breaking out aren't exactly in your favor, unless I'm the one to prompt it. It may not work on some of the more threatening opponents in this war, but it sure is useful for buffing up the riff raff and the easily manipulated.

As time passes, the grip I have over someone tightens, and tightens. It becomes more difficult to break with every passing moment if you fail to resist immediately. Eventually, it becomes possible for me to shatter whatever is left of their damaged psyche, and voila, I have a permanent slave to do my bidding. Not many Void members live long enough for that, as a lack of conscious actions also leads to a lack of good judgement, which further leads to putting themselves in plenty of life or death situations. I would be distraught over losing a strong slave, but all of them could be replaced in one way or another. There's only a select few who can't, and they have little to no chance of doing so.

An interesting thing about these mindless slaves: It seems as if, once I finally break their psyche, and they're officially dead on the inside, they regain some of their common sense, and act smarter, without direct orders. You would think the opposite is true, but that's not quite the case. No matter how much I try to reason with myself on how exactly this happens, I couldn't come up with a solid answer. Perhaps, rather than breaking them, I'm freeing their minds, but at the same time, retaining the ability to give commands they're unable to refuse. The way the world works is unknown, nor do I care about figuring anything out, though it certainly is an interesting study to think about.

My paws continued to move across the interior of the Void, causing light taps with every step, annoying me. I was easily annoyed by a lot of things, one of which is myself apparently. Once I arrived at a certain point in the corridor I was traveling through, I brought my paw to the wall, and traced a pattern on it, a variation of the Void's icon. It wasn't obvious to an outsider how to open new areas in the Void, so the codes preventing others from moving around freely didn't have to be needlessly complex.

As soon as my paw detached from the wall, the sound of metal rubbing against metal entered my ears, which made me close my eyes in disgust. Once the newly revealed entrance was available, I slowly walked inside, into a very wide room we had here. It was cylindrical, consisting of a red, rocky material, the ground uneven as the walls. It wasn't meant to be stable though, this was just as area for certain Void members, namely admins, to hone their skills. Most of the time two admins would bring one another here, and train with one another. Not everyone complies to this, as many of them have murdered an ally in this small arena. There's one pokemon always here it seems, one who's always either banging their head into the wall to adapt to the impact of certain attacks, aiming at bits of stone that have chipped off of the wall to increase their accuracy, generally sprinting around, practicing with their known abilities, even silently meditating.

That same pokemon was present in the room now, sitting down with their back to me, not making a noise.

With this pokemon, my concerns were evident. I had never had a fear of anything similar in the past, nobody has ever had the philosophy that she does. A philosophy that shouldn't exist in the first place, but some things can't be erased. When she started off, she was a weakling. Couldn't take the simplest of Raven recruits in a battle if she tried. I almost lost hope for her, but then, began to feel admittedly impressed when I noticed a quality she had. More diligence than I've ever seen from a pokemon. Every opportunity she had, she would be somewhere, training herself. Her mind and body, continuously getting stronger, more dangerous. Eventually, I was comfortable bringing her to the position of an admin, despite the fact that her seemingly unbreakable focus didn't translate to when I actually asked her to do something.

Even with the promotion, and the ego boost, she never stopped trying to better herself. Most admins take their position and run with it, never trying to adapt, but she wasn't like them. She still had a quality I figured would be long gone after her treatment. And with that quality, came her bursting into the top five of the Void, knocking Rage right out. Before long, she passed the scientist too. It's still hard to judge which one of them is more dangerous, but to me, it was a safe assumption to move her up. That seemed to be her peak, or so I thought. Semi-recently, she passed The Assassin as well. An impressive feat, yes. Impressive, and perhaps, intimidating one. She's not even done improving yet. There's a more than likely possibility that she's rounding closer and closer to Aven with each passing day. That's not a day I'm looking forward to. The side of me that wants to prevent it from ever happening was going to take control soon, I had to organize a way to accomplish it, messing up could be dangerous for the Void as a whole. It could be detrimental to the everlasting war we're in the middle of.

Even so, it was better than being intimidated by an underling of yours.

I took a few steps forward, before tapping my paw on the ground a few times audibly, causing the pokemon in the middle of the room to slowly tilt her head back, until she could barely see me.

"Hey Boss!" Her smile grew, looking innocent if you weren't familiar with her.

It was time to give her information on an important future task.

* * *

 **Shine**

 _This is so difficult…_

I never really liked wooded areas, especially when forced to wear very uncomfortable weighted braces on all four of your legs. These are heavier than the ones I had on before too, I certainly wasn't used to it yet. It took time to adapt to these things, being comfortable with a increased mass pulling down on me at all times wasn't the most practical decision sadly. According to Crescent, this is supposed to be very beneficial to me over time, but right now, I have a firm stance when it comes to hating them. I don't remember the last time my legs weren't sore.

"Stop being so sloppy, keep moving." I rolled my eyes at the voice behind me, feeling ever so slightly annoyed.

"I would be a lot less sloppy if I didn't have to walk with my weight suddenly doubled." I replied with a sigh, rather unimpressively climbing over a fallen tree.

"Tripled. Doubled was last week." Crescent reminded me. "You'll thank me later, for now, get used to it." _No need to be so blunt…_

"And how many more of these weights do you have that can somehow add up exactly to multiples of my weight?" I curiously asked, also wondering how much longer I would have to submit to this.

"You wouldn't like the answer to that." I shivered at the sylveon's words.

"Point taken…"

The two of us continued through the heavy greenery of a dense forest, looking for some small camp. We're supposed to meet a pokemon there according to our group's leader, though, I had no clue what kind of personality we would be dealing with, and the lack of emotion in our mission lecture didn't help.

"You think you're willing to fight off any ferals that attack with those weights on?" Crescent caught up and walked beside me as I put on a baffled expression.

"I can hardly walk in these and I'm not good at fighting in the first place, how exactly do you expect me to do that?" I responded, not looking in her direction, as to make sure I didn't trip.

"I dunno, I'm not the one wearing triple my body mass." She innocently shrugged, and I glanced at her.

"And I suppose you already went through what I'm being subjected to?" Each step felt heavier and heavier, I really did hate this.

"Not exactly, but I did my own training." Crescent stretched her ribbons out on either side of her body. "Though, I got beaten up a lot more because of it, I think this method works better, hence why I decided to lend you my lovely weights."

"I can think of so many other adjectives to describe them…" I muttered.

"Yeah yeah, you don't like them, I get it. It's better than overworking yourself to the point in which you can hardly walk."

I tilted my head. "You do realize-"

"I noticed it as I said it, shut up." She sighed. "This is better, trust me."

"If you say so, not like I have any idea what I'm doing when it comes to this stuff." I said, amused by Crescent's little slip up.

"You didn't seem terrible, I was surprised when you said you've never tried actually training yourself beyond midnight jogging and meditation." Crescent encouraged, likely referring to when I was in that very confusing three way battle in Myriad.

"Beginners luck." I sighed. "Besides, I have no idea how to move effectively in battle, I just used inspiration from someone else I saw."

"You told me about that already." Crescent turned her head towards me. "But, being able to imitate it is still good, nobody is completely self-taught."

"I couldn't repeat that moment if I tried though. My body just kind of took over, I hardly knew what I was doing, just acted on instinct." _Thinking back, I really don't know how I did half the things I ended up doing in that fight. I just sorta… Let my body move._

"You gotta start somewhere, right?" Crescent slapped me with one of her ribbons, making me stumble, before jogging ahead of me. "Keep up and maybe I'll go easy on you next week!"

I fixed my posture and looked in the direction Crescent was running, and with a face that perfectly reflected how annoyed I was, I took a breath, and began jogging after her. Each heavy step took effort, and any time I had to hop over a large rock or a downed tree, I felt my legs scream at me to let up for a second, but I continued moving as quickly as I could through the rough terrain, the sound of cracking twigs, ripping leaves, and my panting being all I could hear in the ambient atmosphere.

The two of us kept in one direction for a decent while, before Crescent finally stopped and turned around to face me. I trudged forward slowly and collapsed on the ground about five feet in front of her, breathing heavily. My four legs all ached, and I had little confidence I was able to move any more than I already have with them on.

Crescent took a few steps forward and looked down at me. "You know, you're going to have to get a lot better if you want to actually make progress."

I flipped onto my back and looked up at her. "Y-You're the one leading my training, perhaps you're doing something wrong?" I taunted.

"Right, right, and your body being as fragile as a twig when I found you is my fault too." She replied in an annoyed voice. "For all you know, you could be much, much stronger already if you didn't slack and ignore your body's needs for-"

"It was a joke, Crescent." I interrupted, closing my eyes and trying to catch my breath.

"I-I knew that…" Crescent's voice was quiet and bashful, almost inaudible through her pawsteps a little bit away from me. "You told a joke."

I slowly opened my eyes and glanced toward her, tilting my head. It took me a second to catch onto what she was saying. "I did, didn't I..?" I looked back up to the sky, barely making out the formations of clouds behind all of the scattered branches from tall trees.

The past week or so hasn't been any easier than the previous ones. I still have the same mental problems, none of them feel like they've faltered in the slightest, all still totally present in my mind. Crescent, in a way, was the only one pulling me back down to earth. She would pep talk me when she thought I needed it, even if I really didn't. When it was really obvious I needed it, she would pin me to the ground with her ribbons and not let me move until I snapped out of it. If I resisted in any way, she would start attacking me, and dear Arceus I learned very quickly to not fight back.

I appreciated everything she did to help, and more so, appreciated the fact that she was willing to do so. I mean, I feel like most would look at my state, both physical and emotional, and assume I'm a lost cause, but she didn't give up on me. Crescent, even though I was stubborn, kept on talking, kept on making sure I wasn't alone, kept on encouraging me. I couldn't express my gratitude for that, even if I had more than a hard time showing it. I never knew what to say when it came to talking to her about how thankful I was, I don't really know how to put it into words, so I end up losing my train of thought and deciding it's better I don't embarrass myself by trying to express it.

I shook my head and slowly stood up. "That's a good sign, right?" I asked, not specifically to Crescent, but just out loud.

"Who knows? I would say yes, but I'm no therapist." She replied, walking over to me. _You sure sound like one at times._

I stood still, as to not overwork my legs too much more. "Is this where we need to be? To meet the guy?" _I just realized, they didn't even give us his name._

"Yep! I think so, he should be arriving here from his area any moment now!" Crescent turned around and stared forward, and I followed her lead. "By the way, you can remove the braces now, it's been long enough.

Never before has such a small statement cause my eyes to light up like that did. I bent my neck down and clamped the weight on one of my forelegs in my teeth, slowly pulling it off of my leg with some effort, and feeling immense relief, along with a bit of soreness.

"Can't you just use your psychic powers to take all of them off at once?" Crescent asked, tilting her head at me.

"Technically yes, but I would rather save them for when I really need to ring them out." I responded, moving to my other foreleg and slowly slipping the brace off.

"I would think you could just use them whenever you want, is there a limit or something?" Crescent had a curious voice.

"That's not really how it works." I took a breath. "Psychic abilities are weird, they work by-"

"I wasn't asking for a lecture." Crescent interrupted me, holding her paw up. "I don't need to be taught the ways of another type extensively."

I put on an annoyed expression. "You're the one who brought it up…" I turned myself around and fiddled with the braces on my back legs, awkwardly shuffling until I managed to slip them off too. As soon as I was free of all extra mass, my body felt light as a feather, though still sore. I stretched each of my legs out, before standing tall and strongly once more. _So much better…_

"Seriously, I have no clue how you'll deal with the coming weeks if you're that pleased to be free of those dinky things." Crescent observed my facial expressions.

I intentionally changed the emotions my face was showing to throw her off. "I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll be able to adapt to whatever you put me through." _I hope._

"Oh really?" She directed a smirk at me. "Then why did you cower in fear and stop resisting my help after I tried attacking you once?"

My eyes widened a little and I nervously looked away. "Totally unrelated." I spouted.

Crescent just giggled and walked over to me. "No need to be bashful, I already know you have no idea how to get around a fight properly." One of her ribbons slowly made its way under my chin and forced me to lock eyes with her. "That being said, how about you listen to whatever I say when you feel like self-deprecating, or we can repeat those events all over again." Crescent gave me a half-evil, half-innocent smile.

I stared back at her and barely managed to gulp. "I-I can't tell whether that's supposed to comfort me or terrify me… because it's doing a bit of both…" I shivered. "A little more of the terrifying bit…"

Crescent bursted out into laughter and backed away from me, releasing my head. "Good, good, fear is a great motivator." She turned in the other direction, and I was able to freely shake my head to get rid of whatever embarrassment I felt. _Why can't she let up..?_

I wanted to bite back at her, but I didn't quite get the chance, my attention was quickly directed elsewhere. I walked over to join Crescent's side, and in front of us, stood a new pokemon, looking rather intimidating, forcing an uncomfortable shudder out of me. Towering above, a few feet in front of the two of us, stood a haxorus. I had never seen one of these before, they were certainly just as large as I imagined. The large pokemon intimidated me on sheer size alone, though that wasn't necessarily a reason to pass judgement on them, just a personal problem I wasn't aware I would have.

The party of Crescent and I only stared at the newly entered dragon for a few seconds, sizing them up. The silence was admittedly awkward, and lasted for longer than I would have liked to be honest. Eventually though, the sylveon next to me had to show her big mouth off to someone other than me.

"Hello!" Crescent simply greeted, bowing her head with a smile. "My name is Crescent! NIce to meet you!" One of her ribbons rose above my head, and settled on top of me. "This is Shine!" She introduced me, catching me a little off-guard. Not knowing what to say, I rose my paw a little and gave what was likely the most pathetic wave that could ever come from a pokemon.

The haxorus in front of us bowed their head down. "Pleased to meet you two." His voice was deep, and like everything else, intimidating. "I'm known as Apex, I look forward to briefly working with you." Apex rose his head, looking down at us. Crescent was as bright as ever, but you would get better emotion from a brick then what I was giving off. I had no idea if I should be putting up a facade or what I should be saying, so I was indifferent on both fronts.

"We were told that you're going to show us to somewhere in one of the hills around here, where you would be able to help us gather some resources. Is that all good?" Crescent said, likely just to confirm that we were indeed here with the right pokemon, and for the right purpose.

"Of course, that would be correct." Apex's eyes fell onto Crescent, with an expression that was hard to perfectly place. "Make sure you don't go too much farther in this direction, you might run into some pokemon who still see you as hostile." _Hostile? As in, other than ferals?_

"Hostile? As in, other than ferals?" Crescent asked, causing me to paused for a second. _Did she ju-_ "And wait a second, what do you mean by that exactly? You're saying it like I came here already and created a bad reputation for myself." _That's also true, the wording used was weird…_ I shook my head.

"Yes, other than ferals. Details aren't necessary, just make sure to stay clear from it, and be careful when you see anyone else around this forest." Apex stated matter of factly. _Why aren't the details necessary? Wouldn't that be important so we know if we should defend ourselves or not..?_

"Huh, if you say so." Crescent replied, seemingly not bothered by the same thing I was. "Anywho, want to get going? I bet we can get all of this done really quickly if we go now!" She followed, with a distinct energy in her voice.

Apex simply nodded with a smile. "I agree, stay behind me and we'll be there in no time at all." He took a second to scan the endless greenery surrounding us, before his eyes locked in one direction. As soon as his vision was focused, he faced it, and began walking off. Without hesitation, Crescent and I followed.

Only after a minute or so of walking in silence, I felt a rough slap on the back of my head, forcing me to stumble forward and nearly fall down. _Oww… Why..?_ Without slowing our pace down, I glanced back at Crescent, one of her ribbons retracting to her. "Why don't you say something for once?" She spoke in a whisper.

 _Was that really worth smacking me over..?_ I let out a small sigh. "I have nothing to say, and it's not like we're here to socialize, we're here for gathering materials."

She just scoffed in response. "Your social skills will never get better if you don't use them."

"I already have plenty of social skills, now isn't the time to be worrying about how well I can hold a conversation with a stranger." I shot back in a whisper. I turned my eyes to Apex, still walking in the front, not noticing the small spat behind him.

"I would be perfectly okay with that if I couldn't tell you had a burning question in your head a few minutes ago. Why don't you speak up for once?" Crescent sounded annoyed.

"I'll let you know later, just focus on the current task for now." I continued walking, making sure I kept my voice down. I received another vicious smack, this time on my forehead, making me bite my lip to stay quiet. _Quit that…_

Our journey continued on, this time, in complete silence. I used the opportunity to take in the environment around me, every little detail of it. The trees standing tall, the ones that have been long fallen, each of the array of plants we crossed, and even the scents that I picked up on. Some pleasant, others neutral, and some just plain revolting. At times, it almost smelled like something was burning, but no sight of a fire. I had no clue where this sensation came from, but it was rather… irritating at times.

"How long have you been with Ark?" Apex asked, not turning his head.

"He's a new leader, so not very long in my case, and even less so for him." Crescent said, nodding her head towards me even though Apex wasn't looking. "How do you know Ark?" She went on to ask.

"One can say we communicate through the same group. We have the same resources to pull from when we need it." Apex explained. "He's closer to them than I am, but the two of us have worked together once or twice before on tasks very similar to this one." This information was interesting to hear, as I didn't think Ark was one to ever have allies other than the group that he leads, and we're not even allies. I likely would stay as far away as possible from him if I had somewhere else to be, his silence and lack of emotion generally creeped me out. _Ark… What an interesting garchomp…_

"Out of curiosity, does he ever talk around you with… like… feelings?" Crescent asked in a confused voice.

"Not with me. It seems to me that Ark only really cares about getting the components necessary to get through whatever he may be doing, then he's on his way like always. I don't know what he does outside of the few collaborations we've had." Apex went on.

"Huh… Thought I finally found someone who would be willing to be his friend. He doesn't have many of those." Crescent tilted her head. "Any of those…"

"Ark isn't the type to need friends, you shouldn't worry about him." _I've never heard anything about our leader before, this is interesting._

"Worried? Oh please, I'm not exactly fond of the guy. I just work for him because it gives me something to do, and since we occasionally find criminals to take down, I'd say it's a win win."

I continued to listen to the conversation between both Apex and Crescent, but at no time did I feel the need to give my input. I enjoyed just listening, and taking note of anything I didn't know before. I was also admittedly getting wrapped up in the ambience surrounding us, even though I've never specifically liked forests, I've never had the ability to spend a lot of time in them either. I paid enough attention to keep up with Apex, so I didn't see the harm in taking some time to relish our surroundings. I will admit though, the conversation had by Apex and Crescent sort of went over my head after a while.

After spacing out for a decent while, Apex stopped walking just as we were passing a large rocky structure. Crescent and I stopped right behind him, and my eyes automatically traced the entirety of the large rock planted within the ground beside us. It was big. Very big. The material that the mountain was made of was a light orange, no part of it was smooth, rough and pointy through its entirety. Climbing it would be a massive pain if anyone had the desire to do so, and considering that I'm a quadruped, I'll pass.

"Is this it?" Crescent asked, turning to the earth and observing.

Without talking, Apex opened his mouth, and shot off a small, purple sphere, which connected with the rocky surface, shattering a portion of the wall with a very loud crack, which made me flinch. Large portions of rocky debris flew away from the mountain, some of which connecting with trees, which I imagined wasn't too healthy for their stability. Inside of the newly made entrance, was a hollow cave, looking pitch black from the outside.

"This is it alright." Apex stated, but he sounded off. Almost as if he was… anxious? Or maybe anticipating something? _Strange…_

Without a pause, Apex hopped into the hole, and began walking forward. Crescent and I were obviously both taken off guard by this, and hesitated. The two of us exchanged a glance, sharing a similar expression of discomfort.

Soon after, that glance became a nod, and the two of us followed Apex.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Dear lord I've been busy, but I managed to complete this just before I get another flurry of work to do, so yay for that! I'll have some more time to focus on my own studies and whatnot now, so hopefully, that means I can pick up the writing pace a little! We can only hope, right?

Anywho, thank you for reading, thank you for all of the messages and reviews, I love em all!  
See You Next Chapter!


	49. A Matter of Seconds

**Kuro**

I saw nothing but black space in one moment, and was further blinded by colors the next.

As soon as my eyes opened, my body shot up, and I stood on all fours. Sadly, accompanying this motion was an extreme spike of pain, which I flinched at, but I didn't let myself make a sound.

My eye shot from left to right, observing everything around me. A crowd of pokemon, though, only half of them were standing. The rest, blodied and beaten, seemingly unable to get up. The most bothersome part of this was tugging at me, and I grit my teeth. I turned my body in circles, looking all around me, scanning the environment, despite my sight being the slightest bit blurry. A minute is all it took for me to observe my surroundings, and much to my dismay, Ethos was nowhere to be seen.

I shivered, feeling my legs shake a little bit. I took a few shallow breaths. Without hesitation, I turned in the direction of the cave's exit, and tried to sprint towards it. 'Tried' being the key word there, as one step was all it took for me to stumble and fall back onto my side, making me groan and tense up.

"Don't break yourself more please…" My head slowly looked up, looking for the source of the voice that broke through the ever so slight ringing in my ears. A familiar dragalge floated through the air, settling not far from my downed body. "Sudden movements will only make it worse, you don't seem to know the definition of taking it easy." Tsu said with a sigh.

I flopped onto my stomach and very slowly pushed myself off of the icy ground. "W-What happened to me?" I asked aloud, curious about the scenario that took place before I blacked out. I somehow, caught a second wind or something..? I started moving normally, and perhaps, even a little faster than I normally did, before the injuries. It was like I had a burst of energy to use for a little bit, but then everything just went dark. _And I felt very, very irritated… That was weird…_

"You were given a product we have here, specifically used for battles we don't think we can win." I took a second to balance myself, feeling a little better than before the fight, but still sluggish either way. "Think of it as an extreme pain killer, something that sapped away however much pain you were feeling at the time. It doesn't last very long, a few minutes at best, but it's a useful supplement for overturning a fight." Tsu paused for a sec, and prodded at the burn marks on my body with one of her… appendages? "It didn't heal you, it only distracted you. And seeing as your body is in about as bad of a condition as can be, moving around like that and using attacks didn't help you much. I would say you made your current injuries even worse. If I didn't get here when I did, you wouldn't be standing, or even conscious likely."

I looked at the ground, not pleased with myself. "What about Ethos..?" I asked in a quiet voice. "T-They grabbed him or something, where did he go?" I slowly rose my voice as I spoke.

"They're not gone yet, the two of those intruders went deeper into the cavern we live in. As far as I know, they still have possession over him." She let out a sigh. "They told us to stay out of the way and they would leave without harming anyone else, so we waiting for them to keep going and started tending to the wounded ones." Tsu sounded regretful. I didn't blame her for the choice she made, but at the same time, if I was up, if I wasn't hurt, I might have been able to do something about it.

"Why couldn't I have lasted just a bit longer..?" I said, not meaning to vent my thoughts. My teeth clenched in frustration.

"You blacked out on your paws. Nothing you could have done." Tsu replied. "If anything, you prevented more injuries from taking place. Or worse for that matter…" There was a few seconds of silence. "You should be feeling better now, I used some of our meds to heal you up a bit. You're nowhere near healthy, but you should at least be able to walk normally, without too much pain."

Again, I was silent. I had no idea what to say, but I had idea of what I could do. _They're still here..? I can catch up to them, but there's no way I would last in a battle with both, and if I tried anything, they would certainly attack…_ I took a breath, trying to recall why the Void would be here for any reason. _They said they were here for finding minerals, right..? They're deeper in the cave, maybe their primary concern isn't Ethos, but those elements..?_

I thought up a lot of radical possibilities, some of which weren't very pleasant. I had a tendency to overthink ninety percent of the situations I get myself into, and this was no exception. _Maybe… I can bribe them…_

Before my train of thought could continue, it was derailed by a low growl, coming from my left, slowly increasing in volume. This kept up until the tapping on the icy ground grew closer to me, but I didn't raise my head to observe. I mentally took note of the noises, but was too wrapped up in my own head to really care about them. _I know they aren't here for me, but maybe, it can still work… Maybe I can-_

"Why did the outsider get healed?" A new voice interrupted my thinking. My working eye slowly glanced to the left, where I found the red fur of what looked like a lycanroc. I could be wrong about that, as I've never physically seen one, plus my crappy eyesight could always lead me to the wrong conclusions.

Tsu floated through the air, from beside me to in between the newly entered pokemon and myself. "This outsider stopped our injured numbers from going up more than they needed to, we owe it to him to patch up some of his wounds." _Really..? It feels like I accomplished nothing there…_

The rock-type canine scoffed. "Why does that matter? Those guys who attacked are nothing like we've seen before!" From behind Tsu, I noticed the red foreleg of the lycanroc extend, pointing towards me. "Then a random outside shows up, Ethos freaks out about him, and now some random super-powered pokemon show up to hurt us? Do you think it's just a coincidence!?" The lycanroc yelled, finally prompting me to actually raise my head to her.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Tsu questioned. "If there were negative intentions involved, then two of them would not be out for blood against one another."

"Have you ever heard of 'acting' Tsu?" The lycanroc asked in a mocking tone. "Plus, it's pretty clear by everything I've heard that this guy has history with the other two, what else could it mean!?" _How does she know that..? Maybe someone here heard and relayed everything Nekro and I said to each other… and then that gallade…_

"I still don't see any ill will." Tsu stated, though more quietly than before. It seemed as if she didn't have a counter argument to the other pokemon.

"Fine then." Tsu was pushed to the side, putting me face to face with a terrifying glare, that admittedly made me shiver a little. "Can you explain then? Why don't we hear it from you? Do you know these random pokemon? Are you working with them? Are you just as dangerous? Answer!" She growled.

I locked eyes with the lycanroc, taking a small breath. "I-I do know them… But I didn't lead them here. We aren't allies, quite the opposite." I answered, not feeling the need to give details.

"Jewel, that's enough of the questioning, he's clearly still injured and tired." Tsu addressed, slowly floating towards the lycanroc presumably known as Jewel.

Just as she approached, Tsu was merely shoved away again. "So they're looking for you? And you dragged them here because of that? Why are you even here!?" I was assaulted with another barrage of questions.

Overwhelmed, I took a second to gather my thoughts before talking. "I'm not here for any particular reason, I'm just sort of… here." I sighed, realizing how unconvincing that likely came out. "Those two had no way to track me, and they even said they were here for another purpose, not to hunt me down."

"Please. Why would we listen to them? Why would we believe anything they say? Why do we believe anything you say!?" Jewel yelled progressively louder and louder as this conversation continued.

"What reason would I have to lie?" I answered her questions with one of my own. "I'm not familiar with your group, I wasn't even aware it existed. What grounds do you have for accusing me of coming here to spread lies?"

"I don't need grounds. My friends are the ones who got hurt, you need to answer everything." She growled at me.

"There's not much I can answer…" I admitted, looking down. "They're dangerous. Right now, your focus shouldn't be on me. It should be on getting Ethos back, and getting everyone else a safe distance away from those two." I glanced passed Jewel, looking deeper into the cave. "They aren't here specifically to fight, but… it looks like they won't hesitate to do so…"

"How can you even say that name..?" Jewel's tone went sombre for a second, confusing me. "You're the reason he's in there with them right now! If you never showed, this wouldn't be happening!"

I froze for a second. I knew that Nekro and that gallade, the Void in general, had no real way to track me. I wouldn't use this in an argument, but really, the fact that I ended up here at the same time as them is a coincidence. Then again, if I wasn't here, they may have had an even more clear shot to the center of the cavern. _Did… did I make this into a bigger deal than it would have been..? Maybe me trying to hold Nekro off had unwanted consequences, would Ethos have thrown himself in the front line like that had I just let him pass…?_

I found myself unable to really respond. I couldn't organize my thoughts now, it was too strongly clouded by the chance that I was responsible for the injuries here, the fact that Ethos is stuck with those two.

"He's practically a little brother to everyone here, the small and innocent shuppet who wants to keep on exploring… And those guys are only here, they only broke so far because of you!" Jewel put her head centimeters in front of mine. I stared at her, wordless. If this was the truth, she had every right to be mad at me, to scream at me. _Am I really the reason for this..?_ I was emotionally flooded, this was way too much to try and take in after waking up from unconsciousness.

"That's enough." Tsu shoved Jewel to the side, making the glare aimed at me transmit to her. "What he said is right, we need to focus on other tasks right now. This can be settled after the matter."

"Oh yeah..?" Jewel replied, scoffing. "Then how do you propose we do that? I can probably take one of them, but the other is a total wild card, how is it even possible that we can get Ethos back from them!?"

"I might be able to." I spoke up, causing the other two to look at me once more. "I don't know for sure, but… It's possible, and worth a shot."

"Oh, trusting the outsider with the life of one of our own? What a great idea." Jewel said sarcastically. "And how do you propose you'll do that? With a blind eye and your still injured body?"

I took a breath, trying not to break under the pressure that Jewel was putting me under. "I can act as a bargaining chip."

I was met with silence, before I felt something grip the side of my head, forcing me close up to Jewel's face again. "Explain. Now."

I tried to give an uneasy nod as best I could. "I don't have a good history with those pokemon. Without… dumping a lot of details on you, they want to capture me, and take me somewhere. That's not the reason they came here, but… as far as I know, they don't seem to have a specific reason for taking Ethos. He might just be… the first one they came across that looked easy to take." I shuddered, briefly thinking about what would happen if Ethos were to get carried back to the Void. "They actually have a reason for wanting me… So if I offer myself up for his safety, it's possible they can bite."

Jewel stared at me, her eyes locked on mine. I was trying my best to keep a strong facade, and not show my intimidation, also hide my uncertainty about this whole situation.

"Wait just a second." One of Tsu's appendages separated Jewel and I. "And why exactly do they want to capture you specifically? Who are they?" Tsu asked with slight intrigue.

"They're… part of an organization called the Void. Their group rivals mine, and they want certain information out of me. Because of that, they're putting resources towards taking me back to their base of operations." I explained.

"I see…" Tsu put on a thinking expression. "One more thing. You never fully explained where you came from, and unlike how you made it here, you actually know that part." I nodded as Tsu kept speaking. "The ones who took you there in the first place wouldn't happen to be with this… Void organization, would they? Did you come from their captivity?"

With some slight hesitation, I nodded. "I've been taken once. I have no idea how I made it out though… I can't remember any of it…"

"That's besides the point. Are they the reason behind your eye and all of your burn wounds, along with every other injury you came here with?" Tsu pressed, waiting for a reply.

"That's correct… I wouldn't talk, and they need information, so this is their solution." I shook my head, trying to keep the memories away.

"Wait wait wait, and you're saying you'll submit to that again so easily?" Jewel chimed in, sounding suspicious. "I doubt that. If they were the ones to do that to you, there's no way you would ever consider putting yourself up for trade, it's idiotic!"

"Well do you see a better way!?" I shot back, raising my voice a little, catching the two off guard. I coughed a few times, the burning not nearly as bad as previously, but still there nonetheless. "L-Look, I don't care about any of that. I'd rather go back there then let someone die because I couldn't hold out." I looked down, right at my distorted reflection in the ice below. The ice was cracked, and I could see portions of my face in every piece.

"Why do you even care? Like you said, you've never even heard of us until now, why does any of this matter to you?" Jewel asked, though not as loud as before. "I'm still not convinced. I say we should keep you contained so you don't hurt anyone. If those two try to come and rescue you, I won't let them pass." She unsheathed a large, sharpened claw.

I dug one of my claws into the ice, feeling irritated. "Whether you believe or not, every second you spend here doubting it all is another lost helping Ethos." I looked up at Jewel, glaring a little. "If I go in there and die, what do you even care? And if I were to try and break out and fight the rest of you with those two? It's not like I'm in any condition to do so in the first place. You have nothing to lose by me offering myself up in order to get Ethos back."

Seconds passed, Jewel being at a loss for words. I needed to get through to her in one way or another, as it was clear that she wasn't confident enough to rush in herself and try to take Ethos back. She talked as if she could take Nekro on, so perhaps there was an exception in this group of pokemon who could hold their own in a battle. Either way, it was too dangerous for her to run in. Too reckless.

Time was being wasted, and I was another breath away from running passed Jewel and finding Nekro, that gallade, and Ethos. I had a chance to help him, and I needed to do everything within my power to accomplish that.

"Fine… go." Jewel said, my glare on her softening. "If you even try to leave here without Ethos, or you attack anyone, you're dead." I nodded.

"You won't need to worry about that." I replied, taking a breath. I couldn't fight effectively, but at the very least, I was able travel. I could work my way deeper into this place, and try my hardest to make sure that Ethos makes it back here. _Even if it means I'm going back with them. I got out once, I'm sure I could do it again eventually..?_

"You know that you're in no condition to be picking fights, right?" Tsu chimed in.

I nodded. "I'm not planning on fighting. Only if absolutely necessary. If they don't take the deal, I could always create a distraction for Ethos to get away at the very least."

"And in both of those outcomes, you likely go back with them." Tsu added.

"That's… correct I suppose." I said, though a bit hesitant. I began walking forward, getting a feel for how much I could push my body without overdoing it and blacking out again. _Maybe I can run a little bit… But actually fighting won't go well. Not unless I somehow managed to take someone off-guard._

I wasn't met with a reply from either of the two. WIth that awkward silence, I began off, deeper into the cave. _I shouldn't get my hopes up…_

I dragged my paws passed all of the other nomads, some of which looking at me with indifference, others staring in contempt. It didn't seem like everyone was exactly happy with me being here, and it's very possible that some arrived at the same conclusion as Jewel. _I guess that doesn't really matter now, does it..?_ Anxiety started to cloud my head.

I tried my very best to ignore everything, ignore everything and continue walking. I knew what I was about to do is stupid, ridiculous in every meaning of the word. Yet, I kept on moving. I was about to go through with giving myself up to the Void, the place I finally got out of. _Sometimes I wonder if there's something drastically wrong with me…_

Even if I was totally screwed in the head, it wasn't always a bad thing, right? I didn't think so anyway. I'll admit, I've made a lot of stupid decisions and likely just made one more of the same, but something kept me going, even when I knew that my actions were unwarranted. Personally, I wasn't sure why, but I felt attached to Ethos. Just as I connected to Char as quickly as I did, the same applied to Ethos. Maybe it was naive of me to care so much about pokemon that I barely know, but I couldn't help it. It's been a constant of my mind ever since I left the forest. First with Naru, then with Kage, Vero, Shiro, Cole, Aria, everyone. I had no clue if that was healthy or not, but it didn't matter to me much. _Anything is better than being alone. Well, anything but being locked in the Void. I would sooner go back to my feral-like lifestyle than spend more time in their grasp. But… I don't really have a choice now, do I?_

Technically I did have a choice, I had every right to walk away and start off towards Myriad. In the end though, what's one more stupid decision?

As I made my way through the linear passage of the cavern, I came across a split, one I recognized. This was close to the area I woke up in, the part of this cave that hasn't been explored. Also, exactly where Nekro, that gallade, and Ethos were located. I took a deep breath, and began walking to the new area.

This part of the cavern looked nearly identical to the rest of the icy place, the only real difference being the lighting. It was very dark, and while I was still able to make out some shapes thanks to my species, I wasn't used to being in the dark without two fully functional eyes. I couldn't make out the reflective surface of the ice, only the shapes of stalactites and stalagmites. The temperature dropped as well, but I hardly paid it any mind, being cold was the least of my worries.

I wasn't really able to decipher the environment around me, due to my lack of ability to make out details. Either way, I kept moving, not looking back, only walking ahead. I silently hoped there wouldn't be any more forks in the path to wherever Ethos is being held by the other two, I would have no idea which one to choose, and leaving it to lady luck wasn't a very good prospect in my mind. Much to my relief, after about five minutes of walking, the only thing that changed was the steadily increasing cold, the path I was walking on was as straightforward as could be.

I closed my eyes for a second, wanting to think of how I would propose my idea to the two Void members. I didn't get the chance, as the second I tired, I heard the ear-piercing noise of something shattering. Without hesitation, I started to run forward, straight to the sound, taking care to not trip or slip in the dark. My anxiety rose more and more with each passing moment, but I pushed it down and bottled it up as much as I could. Now wasn't the time to be anxious and stressed, now was the time to act before anything bad happened.

It only took a short minute of running for me to find something new, my body only feeling moderately fatigued. A little bit farther down the narrow cavern, I spotted a light, coming out of what looked like a broken wall of ice. I put a lid on the rest of my emotions and ran forward once again.

I hastily approached the new entrance, stopping on a dime once I finally made it. I took a deep breath, and slowly peeked around the corner, wanting to survey the area before rushing in and screaming.

Shining brightly were a large group of pink crystals, making sure that the crevice I was looking into was more than visible. In front of the gems stood two of the pokemon I was looking for, and in the air to their left was the third, bound by thin rings. Merely glancing at Ethos nearly made me rush into the area to try and snatch him, but I thought it through and remembered the plan I had to use. _Being reckless all the time can't be good…_

"How much are we supposed to bring back again?" My ear twitched to Nekro's voice, likely talking to the gallade.

"We don't need much. Don't take more than you can carry." The psychic responded, glancing around the small circular area. "We also have the kid, keep that in mind."

After that, I heard someone clear their throat. "I'm right here and I have a name you know." Ethos said, making me wince.

"I don't care about your name." Nekro told him, turning around. "I care that capturing you is my quota for the day, nothing more."

Ethos spit in his face, which was admittedly amusing. "Why though!? I don't even know who you are!" He didn't sound very amused.

"It's not you specifically, it's," Nekro paused for a second, "a child from this cavern. That's the only requirement I have." _Why in the world would they want a child from here..?_

"What the… Why? What did we do!?" Ethos yelled, echoing in the cave behind me.

"Geez kid, keep it down, I'm not planning on going deaf." Nekro rubbed the side of his head. "You didn't do anything I don't think, this is the job and I'm completing it, that's that. Not every action needs a direct motive."

"That doesn't make any sense!" The small shuppet yelled, louder than last time. I was inclined to agree with him too, there was a reason, Nekro was just either holding it back, or he didn't know. _Or the dunce could have forgotten._

"Shut your mouth before I knock you out!" Nekro screamed back, echoing just like Ethos' voice did. The gallade to the side let out an annoyed sigh, and with a glowing blade, began cutting through some of the crystals. A strange necklace hung from his neck, which I briefly noted, but nothing more than that.

"Fine, then do it!" Ethos growled, glaring at the hitmonchan. _He wouldn't actually…_

"Allow me to grant your request then!"

Nekro rose his arm high, which is all I needed to see. I dashed into the room and took in a large gulp of air. "STOP!" I shouted, louder than either one of the others.

I planted myself between Nekro and Ethos, and the two Void members turned their heads to me, freezing my body from motion. I hardly even noticed how much my throat burned from yelling so loud, I was petrified in a second. Even so, I swallowed my fear, and stood strongly.

"Well, how about that?" Nekro said, putting on a smile that matched his malice when the two of us were fighting. "Throwing yourself into your enemy? Didn't think you were the type to be that stupid."

I hardened my stare at Nekro, starting to feel angered again. Like before, way more so than usual. It was bothersome, but unrelated regardless.

"I have a proposal." I stated as calmly as I could.

Nekro scoffed, and the gallade behind him curiously gazed at me. "What reason would we have to listen to anything you have to say?" The gallade asked, taking a step closer.

"I can provide some sort of… incentive." I took a deep breath. "Please… Trade Ethos out for me, take me with you and let him stay here." I managed to choke out. "I'm a target of more value, especially if your only objective here was to take a random child. You should take me back instead of anyone else here."

The two Void member looked, at the very least, intrigued by the offer. It was the first sign of emotion I saw from the gallade. However, part of me forgot that the pokemon I was standing in front of could hear me just as easily.

"What!? No! That's ridiculous!" Ethos spouted from behind me. As best as I could, I ignored his words.

"What kind of plan do you have here?" The gallade asked suspiciously. "You wouldn't offer yourself back that easily."

I shook my head. "I didn't have a reason to before, and now I do. Take me with you rather than Ethos."

A long pause took place. My body was shaking with anxiety, but I tried as hard as I could to not show it to the others around me.

"What a compelling offer!" Nekro said, cackling sarcastically. "You do realize that we have no reason to refrain from knocking you out right now, and taking the both of you, right? Pleading for a compromise won't do you any good." Nekro smirked at me, and I gulped heavily.

I slowly rose one of my forelegs, putting all of my effort into stopping it from shaking. I placed it on the front of my neck, and let one of my claws extend, so the tips of it were pressing against my throat. "Luna needs me alive, doesn't she?" I asked, though, it was more of a statement.

Nekro's expression dropped from cocky to fearful in an instant. He even took a step backwards. The gallade however, merely locked eyes with me. He was the wildcard, I knew next to nothing about him, and his actions right now totally contradict his actions from before, so he was my biggest concern. Regardless of my worries though, I had to keep negotiating.

"Before you tell me I wouldn't slit my own throat, ask yourselves something. Would I rather be dead, or stuck in the Void to be tortured again?" I stopped speaking, letting each of my words sink in. "It shouldn't be too hard of a question to answer. If you don't agree to the terms I'm asking of you, I'll dig into my own throat right now, and then you certainly won't be getting any information out of me."

I really wished that Ethos didn't have to hear me right now.

"Fine." The gallade said, honestly to my surprise, and by the look of it, Nekro's too. "We'll take you and let the kid go free. However," he turned his gaze right above my head, right at Ethos. "If you try to run when I release you, if you do anything but wait here until the two of us are gone, you won't like the outcome." I assumed that Ethos nodded, because the gallade followed with his own nod.

"Back up towards the entrance." I nodded, obeying them command that was given to me by the psychic. He rose one of his blades and slowly moved Ethos to the back of the small crystal chamber. "Stay there. I'll free you from my grip, and then you stay. We're leaving now." With that, Nekro gave a hesitant nod, picking up two of the medium-sized crystals, then facing the entrance. _I guess I'll be the first to leave…_

Before turning around and walking, I stared at Nekro, who had a face of something between annoyance and confusion. The gallade, he was stoic, I couldn't read his emotions.

I carefully put my foreleg back onto the ground, and retracted my claw. I turned my head up and looked at Ethos, now free of his imprisonment. His face wasn't pleasant, it was one of regret, or angst. I put forward all of my effort and managed to curl my mouth into a smile. I didn't want the last sight Ethos had of me to be one of pain. However, I didn't get the reaction I was expecting.

Ethos' face shifted, his facial features hardened, and he let out a very quiet growl. He had a strong look of determination now, it all changed in a matter of seconds. A lot more than someone's facial structure changing can happen in a matter of seconds. I didn't like his new demeanor, my whole body shuddered, and I took a step back. I opened my mouth to shout like I did before, but I wasn't quick enough.

Ethos shot forward without warning, dashing through the air. He was aimed at the entrance, he wanted to escape and make sure the two Void members didn't get away with what they were doing. He really did have a good heart, a good heart, and a naive one.

Just like he threatened, as soon as the gallade noticed Ethos' dash, he rose one of his blades. I tried to shout, but no sound emerged. With one swipe, a single, thin, sharp projectile shot out from the gallade.

Less than a second later, that blade pierced right through the back of Ethos' head.

Time seemed to slow down, almost stop. My eyes were blank, and if I wasn't frozen before, there was no possible way to move now. The form that Ethos took to launch himself forward went limp. His body lost altitude, falling forward.

I was motionless as his body caressed against the side of my head, large drops of liquid splashing against one of my cheeks.

A single thud rang out in the crevice all of us were in, the thud of his body hitting the ground, right beside me.

I forced my head out of place, forced it to turn downward. Once I managed, all I saw was the small, light blue body of Ethos, with a growing puddle of liquid flowing out from under him. The intense smell of blood entered my nostrils as it wrapped itself around my paws.

I couldn't take my eyes off of Ethos.

I just stared, I was stuck. I couldn't move. My brain was behind everything that just passed my one working eye.

It didn't take long to catch up though, only a matter of seconds.

And once it did, my chest tightened, it hurt more than any amount of pain I felt previously. I lowered my body, lurching forward with my teeth tightly clenched. I accidentally planted my forehead in the new puddle of blood, staining my fur. I felt like collapsing, passing out on the spot, my body wouldn't give out. I wanted it to, I wanted my body to fall over, and I wanted to lose consciousness right there. I was lightheaded, but I wouldn't faint.

I dug my claws deeply into the icy floor, making small, muffled sounds in agony. Perhaps agony isn't where they came from, it was a mix.

Sadness.

Anxiety.

Despair.

Uncertainty.

Anger.

I opened my mouth and took in weighted, heavy breaths, slowly raising my head. All four of my legs were shaking, I didn't have the ability to stop them anymore. My blurry vision met a hitmonchan, taking a step back. He looked a little grossed out, but content with the situation. In front of him, a gallade, looking down at me, no emotion whatsoever. I couldn't help myself from growling, a low noise at first that slowly but surely increased in volume. I stood up straight, wobbling back and forth involuntarily. Some very blurry black particles were in the corner of my sight, but I hardly noticed them.

Instead, I locked eyes with the gallade.

Bloodlust.

My two tendrils almost automatically shot out of my back, and lurched towards the psychic. He put his guard up and looked as if he wanted to slice them apart, but I shoved one of them into his stomach, pushing him back. He winced in pain, and I wrapped the other appendage around his neck, pushing him to the wall. I kept that same tendril locked over his throat, and positioned the other to cover his arms, pinning him to the wall with no chance of movement.

The gallade let out a scream that I was nearly deaf to. I slowly walked towards him, not tearing my eyes away for a second. I kept it up until I was but a foot away, tightening my tendrils' grip. I hard disgusting sounds, ones that matched that of someone choking. I didn't care about them, and merely held him in place. My head was cloudy, my emotions were bubbling my thoughts intensely, and I could hardly care about how sore my body felt. I was only focused on the now helpless Void member I had pinned to the wall.

The gallade locked eyes with me, and neither one of us dared to break it. I finally managed to read something from him, an emotion.

Terror.

My breathing wouldn't calm down, despite my somewhat weak efforts to control it. I was trembling, unable to hold still. The gallade I was holding tightly continued making noise, that of discomfort and pain. Through his lack of air, he was able to form a few words, though I couldn't make them out at first. As time went on, they became more and more clear.

"S-St..op…" That was all he could say. He wanted me to stop. I had him stuck, I had control over him right now, he couldn't move an inch. "I-I… C-Ca...n't…"

My rage did nothing to grow the more I stared at him. I was able to easily fill in the blanks of what he was saying. It wasn't hard. Yet, even though I could hear him, I didn't listen. I didn't stop, I only grasped him tighter.

"P-Pl..ea..se…"

That was the last word that rang out. He was pleading for his life. I felt utterly disgusted.

"Did you stop, even when asked..? DId you hesitate..? Did you hold back at all!?" I yelled between breaths, angrily growling. I don't know why I even bothered, it wasn't possible for me to get a response in this position. There was only one more thing he could muster.

"D-Do..n't…"

I lowered my eyes, gritting my teeth.

"Shut up."

A single snap echoed through the chamber. My tendril had shifted tightened its grip one more time, and forced the gallade's neck into an unnatural position, effectively snapping his upper spine, snapping his neck. Just like that, he stopped struggling, and his body limply hung on the wall. I pulled my tendrils closer to me, and let his body slump to the ground.

I took a moment, staring at him. His head hung awkwardly.

He was dead.

Hardly a minute passed before I slowly turned around, staring at Nekro blankly. He looked at me, shaking in what could only be assumed as fear. Without much hesitation, I growled loudly and lunged forward. Nekro screamed before I even made contact.

I jumped onto Nekro, pinning him to the ground. I held down both his arms and legs with my tendrils, and stared down at him, shaking with anger. Nekro gazed up at me with utter horror on his face, he was shivering intensely, I could feel it.

"W-What is wrong with you!? He's dead!" Nekro shouted at me in a panicked voice. "Y-You killed him! Y-You actually killed him!"

I heard every word he said, yet, they had no effect on me. I leaned my head downward, a harsh wave of cold washing over me.

"Why do you do it..?" I asked, my voice quiet. "Why do you go after innocent lives like this..? Why don't you care about anyone..? Why are you okay with ruining everything for no reason..? Why does the Void do this..? How can they be amused by it..? Why do… Why do you always find a way to make others miserable..? Why..?"

I started choking up, and letting out small sobs. Hot tears collided with the blood all over my face. "What are you gaining by any of this..? What do you get from making others' lives a living hell..? Why do you torture everyone..? Why..? Why..?"

I began outright crying, I had an extreme emotional overload. "You… I thought some of the Void… I thought some of you could be okay… That you weren't there by choice… That there was another reason…" My voice slowly rose in volume. "I thought… Everything could be solved without any more death… That I could protect everyone around me… That I wouldn't let anyone else die…" I rose my head, staring at Nekro. I couldn't make out his expression, I could barely see at all. Blood, tears, not being used to only having one working eye, it was too much. "And yet… You won't give up, none of you will… You all… You all keep coming, one by one, and keep hurting everyone… One… by… One…"

I tensed up and yelled, jamming one of my claws into Nekro's shoulder. He matched my volume with his own scream.

"It never ends… It never ends… You keep coming and ruining everything… Every little thing…" I slowly dragged my claw through Nekro's body, causing him to shriek in agony. "I don't understand! Why!? Why does the Void do this!? Why do you all keep coming back!?" I couldn't control my breathing, it wasn't natural, only heavy, and forced.

I waited for Nekro to say something, anything. I wanted to hear from him, I wanted a reason, an excuse, anything. It was silly to think though, that he would give me what I wanted.

"P-Please…" He practically whispered. "D-Don't kill me…"

I stared down at Nekro, tears still leaking down my face. I growled, not moving my claw from his flesh.

"You want to live..? So you can do what..? So you can go off and try to hurt more pokemon, try and ruin more lives!?" I twisted my claw, and Nekro let out a scream that held nothing but pain.

"You wouldn't let anyone live… You've tried to kill before… You're not above that…" I shook my head roughly.

"You don't deserve mercy."

With that, I took my free paw, and slammed it onto Nekro's neck with all I had. Almost no resistance. His body had unnatural spasms, and his eyes shot open. He flailed any part of his body that I wasn't pinning down for a few seconds, before going motionless. His eyes didn't close, and his head slowly tilted to the side. He was dead.

My breathing wouldn't steady itself. I pushed myself off of Nekro's corpse and retracted my tendrils. With extremely shaky legs, I made my way back to Ethos.

Ethos was face down on the icy ground. I carefully put my paw under him and flipped his body over. There was a large stream of blood going down the front of his face, coming from a nearly invisible wound in the center of his head. His eyes were closed, and his body was motionless.

While looking down at him, I felt my anger, my bloodlust, my aggression, all of it calm itself down. I brought my head to Ethos' and rubbed it against the side of his. I shifted my head so it was under him, and lifted his body onto my back.

I turned to the exit of the crevice, and slowly walked out, covered in blood from multiple pokemon. My aggression was gone, and there wasn't a replacement. There seemed to be a bright light reflecting off of the crystals in the area I just walked out of, but I passed it off as my imagination, seeing as it vanished not ten seconds later.

My body didn't feel tired anymore.

I began off down the dark cavern I traveled down to get here, back to the other nomads.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Have to study for midterms, don't have time for a proper author's notediashdheiufwnduibuifbubsbdbwdbuewbdlwudwubduibliudbwld.

See You Next Chapter!


	50. Moving Forward

**Shine**

I tried as hard as I could, but in the end, I could hardly see two feet in front of me. This place was dark. Very, very dark. I would observe my surroundings, something I believed to be important whenever I wasn't in a familiar area, however, when you physically can't see a thing, it gets a little complicated. I spent my time so far following the sound of Crescent and Apex's voices, and when they were silent, their steps. I only tripped a few times, and luckily, I was able to stay silent whenever it happened. Otherwise, Crescent would hold it against me for ages. _I don't need to give her any more reasons to mess with me…_

I had to admit though, this assignment we were given was going as smooth as it possibly could be. No surprise ambushes, no wandering into a mess of hostile pokemon, though, according to Apex, we weren't too far off from the latter. The point is, we didn't have much trouble getting to where we needed to be, and properly communicating with our ally. Or, assumed ally at least. We didn't know anything about Apex besides the few things Crescent has asked him since we met up with him, and that wasn't much. For all I knew, Apex could have some evil mastermind planning to crush us inside of this dark abyss of a cave, but I tried to stay away from that possibility. 'Tried' being the key word.

Something bothered me about Apex, but I had no idea what it could possibly be. At first, I assumed I was just intimidated, after all, we had never met him before, and he's also the first Haxorus I've ever seen, so perhaps that added to it. Aside from those two details, something just felt… wrong about him. I couldn't specifically place what was bothering me if my life depended on it, but there was definitely something there. It could just be me overthinking a simple situation, which I apparently had a tendency to do if this is any example. I frequently asked myself why we were assigned this task with Apex specifically, and the 'group' both he and Ark had in common. From what I've figured out in this small conversation, Apex isn't a part of it, but he has ties, and Arceus knows Ark would never speak a word about it, so it was left to my own interpretations.

While I was collecting my thoughts, I heard nothing but mumbles from the two walking in front of me. I may have not been able to see anything aside from the upper end of Crescent's tail through the darkness, but I could still hear. Well, sort of. I couldn't tell what they were saying, because I simply wasn't paying attention. I was too wrapped up making possible theories about Apex and why we had to be here with him specifically. It's not like we have a long list of random pokemon that share goals with our small group, so what makes him interested? I could have asked, but I had a hard time opening my mouth to actually do so. Instead, I silently continued walking, beginning to divert my attention away from my overactive imagination.

"I guess we're… treasure hunters? I can't put a label to it." Crescent said with an unsure tone. "We look for jewels, minerals and whatnot that our boss uses somewhere. Apparently it's beneficial to something he does outside of giving us assignments, but he never goes into detail."

A short pause took place before Apex replied. "Ark does have some strange friends, perhaps he takes your findings somewhere and sells them?" He spoke with an inquisitive tone.

"Wouldn't he be like… stupidly rich then?" Crescent replied with a question of her own. "Don't get me wrong, he can very well be, but I feel like we would have more resources if he has that kind of fortune, wouldn't we?"

"You may be right. Truth be told, I'm not sure where those gems go. All I can really say is that I never see them again after he takes them away." _Maybe they're getting used up in some way?_ "There is something interesting about the minerals you typically gather however."

"Something cool?" Crescent sounded interested.

"Depending on what you definition of that word is, maybe so." Apex took a breath. "They contain chemicals, some that can't be obtained anywhere else. When it comes to the more uncommon gems, they can be mixed with one another, or even with common ones, which can do some incredible things."

"Liiiiiiiiiiike?"

"Change the way your body works, enhance certain physical attributes, destroy those same traits, make you heal extraordinarily fast, numb all pain in your body for a short time, act as a deadly poison to kill you in seconds, wipe one's memory, create fake memories in someone's head, cause severe inflammation in-"

"Ooooo-kay, I don't think I'm interested anymore." Crescent cut Apex off. "These chemicals sound like they could bring someone back from the dead, they're kinda creepy. They make me think of some mad scientist trying create a new lifeform that can't die or something."

"They can't go quite that far." Apex confirmed with a light sigh. "However, they are miracle workers. The right mixture can do a lot to help or hurt someone. MIxing chemicals contained in each gem isn't so simple though, it takes a lot of intelligence to create an advanced mixture, especially since there isn't much room for testing."

"Wait, what's wrong with testing new things? Not that I would do it, these possibilities creep me out too much…" Crescent said, sounding nervous.

"There's nothing particularly wrong with it. These minerals don't last forever though, there's only so much to go around. I can think of one right away that doesn't exist anymore, not that I've seen at least. That's for the better." Apex trailed.

"Dare I ask what that liquid may do?"

"When other chemicals are mixed, it's possible to essentially erase one's emotions. This chemical that is no longer around could do that by itself, but when mixed with others, it can have a large variety of dangerous effects. It could make someone into a mindless drone, eliminating their sense of empathy and mercy, turning them into little more than a feral." Apex explained.

"How is that different from taking away someone's emotions though?" Crescent questioned.

"Not having emotions would disable you from functioning altogether, this mixture would still allow you to properly think, and even keep your personality for the most part, only take away any reason for you to hold back from committing mass murder."

"How lovely…" Crescent sighed.

 _This is all… discomforting…_

"Hey, Mr. I don't talk." I couldn't see Crescent's face, but I imagined that she had a smug expression while saying that. "Maybe the right chemicals will allow you to carry all of the weights I have ready."

I shivered. "I'd like to stay away from all of this thank you very much… Including the weights... "

"Too bad bud." Crescent said with a small giggle. "But really, what do you think about this? You think that Ark is using these things to make weird combinations?"

"You know him better than I do, I have no clue." I took a second to think. "All of this sounds so dangerous, I don't get how pokemon have the courage to mess with it when they very well could just create their own death in a second."

"Some are desperate." Apex said. "Some always want more and more, they're never satisfied with everything they already have. In order to always have the ability to get more and more, they mess with these chemicals. They experiment, and attempt to keep pushing their own boundaries farther and farther, until they can create their own army for their goals." I tilted my head.

"Do you really need all of this just to control a group? I mean, getting pokemon to come together means you have to sound convincing, beyond that, why do you need these things? You hardly need to be a scientific genius to be a leader, all you need is the ability to manipulate a group with your words." I was getting sort of off topic, but it didn't seem as if you needed to force others to listen to you via weird chemical combinations. If this stuff is in short supply, how would the leader of the Void create a giant group like that with only negative intentions? Not through drugs, it would be through charisma. _I think…_

As I continued to walk, I bumped into something, which I quickly realized to be Apex, motionlessly standing in front of me. He turned his head and looked down, towering over my small frame. I looked up at him, visually uncomfortable, visually nervous.

"What are you implying?" He asked me sternly. I had a hard time finding words, or event forming thoughts in my head. I don't know what it was, but something about Apex in that very moment terrified me.

"N-Nothing, I was just kind of talking." I told him, taking in a heavy gulp.

Apex locked eyes with me for a few seconds, before turning away and walking off again. After I recovered from temporary shock, I shook my head and kept following him. I caught a glimpse of Crescent's face in the darkness, and she looked no different from me, stained with concern.

The three of us continued forward in awkward silence, and the theories in my mind that I crafted on the way over here began coming right back to me. With each step, another concern joined the rest, all connecting off of how worried I was about who Apex was. _Maybe… He's just having a bad day? I hope so._

Crescent slowed down her walking a little bit, until she was next to me. The two of us exchanged an uneven glance, both obviously bugged by the same thing.

"Maybe… He's just having a bad day? I hope so." Crescent whispered to me.

"Yeah, same here…" I replied equally as quietly. _Wait, did she just… again?_ I shook my head.

"I'm sure we're getting close the minerals we need to gather, let's get it done and move on, just in case this gets dangerous." She suggested, looking forward once more.

"I'm perfectly okay with that." I nodded and looked in the same direction as her, back to silently following Apex. Whatever discomfort I felt about Apex before quickly multiplied without warning. Though, making more theories about it wouldn't help my case, so instead, I began thinking of the quickest way back to our camp after we were done here.

The walking without words continued for a bit longer, and as suffocating as it was, perhaps this was better than talking with Apex more and possibly making him angry again. I dim light began to glow ahead of us, which allowed me to fully recognize Crescent for the first time since we walked in here. It wasn't much light, but it was enough. No words needed to be exchanged, all of us stepped towards the unique glow, a magenta color.

We soon arrived at the source, a small entrance within this cave, leading to another section of it. Once my eyes met the new area, I was dumbfounded. I could finally make out our surroundings, they weren't much different than what I was expecting. Dark, gray rocks surrounding us, stalactites hanging from above us, nothing special to me. What was special however, were the gently glowing pinkish gems sprouting from the walls and the cave's floor. Their shapes were all jaggad, but all unique, no gem looked identical to the next, they all had an ever so slightly morphed shape when compared to the previous one, and some were even different sizes. _These are what we're collecting? Not what I was expecting._

"Whoa, these are what we're here to get? I've seen a bunch of these minerals already, but never ones that glow like this. Not what I was expecting." Crescent said, her eyes lighting up at the sight. I followed her gaze and stared, though, after a few seconds, I came to a realization. _She totally just did it again…_

We were only able to spend a few seconds in awe before we needed to get to work. After all, the less time we spend in here, the better. Crescent and I made our way to the closest crystal, taking another moment to gaze at it. I haven't seen much of what Crescent, or anyone for that matter gathers in terms of minerals, but it didn't seem like this was normal for them to come across. She wouldn't have sounded as if these surprised her if it was a standard gem to collect. That also meant, based on what we just learned, it could have some sort of very dangerous compounds inside of it. _We need to be careful._

"Be careful with these things, they could have some dangerous compounds." Crescent said aloud, and I looked at her, tilting my head.

"Do you have the ability to read minds or something?" I asked her, legitimately curious.

"What? Not that I know of. Isn't that something in your skillset?" She replied, looking at me with a dumbfounded stare. "Why would you ask that in the first place?"

"No reason." I sighed and turned my attention back to the crystal. "I'm guessing you know how to remove something like this without cracking it?"

"It's not exactly complicated, just watch." Crescent stretched out her ribbons, wrapping one around the middle of the roughly shaped mineral, and placed the other near the bottom. She tightened her grip onto it and began slowly shifting it left and right, forcing to to loosen from the ground. She began putting a little bit of force behind her ribbons, and a second later, she popped the gem out of the ground, lifting it up in one swift motion. A small smile grew on her face from her successful removal of the mineral.

"See? Easy as that!" Crescent said triumphantly.

"I thought these things would be stuck in the ground a lot tighter than that." I said to myself, looking at the one Crescent had wrapped in her ribbons.

"You would think so, but I suppose mother nature doesn't always have it out for us." Crescent brought the crystal into her sight, looking at just as I was. "Although, this thing feels weird, like different than others."

"Different?" I questioned.

"Yeah, it's… warm." She nuzzled her cheek against the gem. "Like, it feels like it's alive."

"What are you talking about?" I sounded just as clueless as my mind actually was.

"Look." Without much of a waning, Crescent held the gem against my face, startling me a little. "Feel it, you'll see what I mean."

Just as she said, it felt very… warm. Like the heat of another pokemon warm. The heat pulsed off of the mineral and made my entire face feel as if it was pressed against someone else. That feeling quickly made my body relax, I wanted to close my eyes and rest. I didn't care about the us being in the cave, or around Apex, I just wanted to lay down with this warmth I felt. It truly did feel alive.

"Hey, are you okay?" Crescent pulled the gem away from my face, and I shivered, the warmth slowly leaving me. "You look like you're on cloud nine right now…"

"I-I'm fine." I told her, shaking my head.

"What's with you? I thought you were about to fall asleep in this place, any idea why?" She inquired, to which I shook my head drowsily.

"I don't know, best not to harp on it." I took a breath. "Geez… The last time I felt…" I cut myself off, looking to the ground a little. _I shouldn't have said that out loud…_ I let out a sigh and shook my head again, more roughly than last time. _Get all of this out of my head please…_

One of my forelegs began shaking a little, I think out of anxiety. I tried my best to calm it down. I took slow and deep breaths, just wanting it all to be over already. _Come on… I thought I was getting over this…_ I grit my teeth, trying to blank my mind. That was the only way I could really get away from every thought that came to my head, eliminate my thoughts entirely.

"Calm down a little." I closed my eyes, trying to listen to Crescent. I didn't think my unease was noticeable, but apparently I was wrong. "I shouldn't have done that, I wasn't really thinking of everything, I'm sorry."

"N-No, don't be." I replied, my voice a little uneasy. She couldn't be expected to think of what every little action could do to remind me, that would be a silly thing to ever expect from anyone. _If only I was less sensitive to all of this…_

All of a sudden, the warmth came back, though it felt a bit different this time. I opened one of my eyes and saw Crescent nuzzling against me, on the same spot she had previously held the gem. She kept doing it for a little bit, until slowly pulling away from me. She wasn't there long enough to make me uncomfortable, but it still felt odd, for her to do something like that.

"I know it's still rough for you, but you're getting better. It won't all happen at once, but slowly but surely, you WILL make it through this. I promise." Crescent rose one of her forepaws and gently pet my head, which again, felt odd. Odd, but at the same time, comforting.

I looked at her, and as appreciative as I was, I had questions.

"Where did the gentle approach come from?" I questioned, remembering her usual methods of aggression to help me.

"You need a balancer sometimes, if I just slap you for being emotional, that won't accomplish anything. It's not like there's anything wrong with having thoughts like that, you just can't let them bring you down even farther." Like her gestures, Crescent talked with a kind, gentle tone, as opposed to her usual one.

"You're so strange sometimes." I commented, not looking away from her.

"W-What does that mean?" Crescent sounded concerned, which made me smile a little bit.

"Nothing. Thank you." I bowed my head.

"Wait a second!" Crescent dropped the mineral on the ground, a loud crashing sound echoing through the chamber of this cavern we were present in.

"W-What?" I asked in a startled tone, thanks to her rise in volume as well as the loud noise.

She wrapped her ribbons around my head and forced me to look up at her again. She moved her head closer to me until she was about a centimeter away from me, locked onto my eyes. "Do my eyes deceive me?"

"Pardon..?" _I'm confused…_

"You just smiled." Crescent said, and I paused. "You smiled, that was the first time I saw you actually smile…"

"I did..?"

"Yes! You did! I'm not blind! Your mouth curved upwards, UPWARDS!" She released my head and I stumbled a little. "Holy crap, I wasn't ready for that, this is crazy!"

"Now you need to calm down…" I told the suddenly energized sylveon.

"Nope! This is a good day!" Crescent giggled and her tail swayed at a modest pace. "Come on! You smiled! How don't you see that as a massive improvement!?"

"I don't know, I guess I just… thought it was normal to go a while without smiling?" I questioned my own state of mind.

"Fair enough, you wouldn't really have a reason to think otherwise. But you're getting better! Be proud!" _Why is she so excited over this?_

"Alright, alright, just settle down a little bit. I don't know how to deal with you when you're like this." I looked down at the gem on the ground, now with a straight crack right down the center. _Oops…_

"Oh? So you can handle me when I'm beating you up and screaming at you?" Crescent asked with a smirk.

"Well… I have more experience with that version of you." _A lot more…_

"Fine then, but you better not take this for granted! You'll get better, I can assure you of that." She locked eyes with me and sternly nodded.

While staring back, I felt another smile. "You're right. I'm sure that… these things will work out eventually. I hope so."

"That's right! Be positive for once you stubborn espeon!" Crescent forcefully pet my head, putting more pressure than I was ready for.

"O-Oww…" I groaned, glancing down to the mineral again. From the opening on its surface, a small stream of liquid was leaking out, forming a condensed puddle. Crescent happened to have her paw against the puddle, which means that the liquid from the gem was now on her paw.

It didn't take too long for her to notice too, so she quickly wrapped up her forceful petting and lifted the contaminated paw. "Whoops… Uhm…" She stared at the unknown substance intently. A very unusual scent filled the air around us, making my nose twitch.

"W-Whoa…" I said aloud, blinking a few times. My face began to warm up, and I felt unusually jittery all of a sudden. The strange sensation spread from my face to the rest of my body very quickly, washing over every last inch. I shook my head, and my hind legs started trembling a little.

"W-What the h-hell…" Crescent stuttered. I looked up at her, face red as an apple. I assumed I probably looked like something similar. "Ugh… W-Why…" She shook her head and laid on her stomach suddenly, panting a little.

"A-Are you okay..?" I asked, falling to the ground just as she did. "A-Ahh… W-What is this..?"

"B-Bad…" Crescent dug her head into the ground. "N-Not good at all…"

I began sweating, shaking more intensely than before. My eyelids felt heavier than before, and no matter how much I resisted, they slowly but surely closed themselves.

"S-Shine..? Y-You okay..?" Crescent asked me, sounding like she was in the same spot.

"I-I don't know…" I replied weakly. I was weird. My body felt overly active, like I wanted to move, but I couldn't. I felt lightheaded. "C-Cres..?"

Before I heard anything, I fell asleep.

* * *

Hello Readers!  
My apologies for the short one, I don't have too much time to work on this nowadays, but at least I can get something out!

Also, once more, apologies for being so slow, I've been kinda going through some rough stuff lately, and it's been hard to motivate myself to write, or go to class. -w- (I've only missed one because of this, but it's hard to force myself. qwq) But I'll get better! And when that happens, I'll be back to writing normally! I hope, unless college wants to puck me up and chuck me back into all of my work again. -w-

I want to thank the people who have checked in on me from this site though (You know who you are) It means the world to me that I'm actually cared for from some of you, despite me just being a person with a keyboard who puts words on a screen for all of you to read. :p But if I get some smiles out of people, what else could I ask for? Thank you all for the support as usual, I truly, truly appreciate it!

See You Next Chapter!


	51. A Last Request

**Blade**

"Come… On…"

Setting up traps to make sure ferals didn't quite reach us wasn't too easy. Not overly difficult, but not easy in the slightest. "I think I need to… um… tie this thing…" Under my forepaw, I had a thick vine that I sliced down from a nearby tree, struggling to properly tie it into a small knot. I wasn't exactly smooth with my paws, which certain pokemon never missed the chance to take a shot at. _She's lucky I can't be annoyed with her…_ I thought with a somewhat happy sigh. _I'm making sure my son is way more polished with his paws before he leaves here for the first time, he doesn't need to deal with this crap like me…_

After a very, very long while of fiddling with the same vine, I finally managed to tie the last knot I needed. It wasn't a very complex trap, just something to make sure we don't need to fend off any ferals in the middle of the night. Not that we couldn't handle it, but better safe than sorry! None of us wanted our heads bitten off in our sleep, that's for sure.

With my mission accomplished, I turned around and began walking back home, making sure not to set off any of my previously laid traps. _I don't want to have to set those up again, I would rather just make it so ferals are extinct from this place…_

I didn't stray too far away in the first place, so it didn't take very long to get back, maybe two or three minutes if I sprinted. Walking here while also setting up traps, now that took nearly three hours, but luckily I don't have to mindlessly meddle with vines and pretend that I know how to tie a knot anymore. _At least, until I have to reset them all…_ A shiver ran down my spine as I approached the small cavern that I resided in.

Right outside of the entrance, a very sleepy-looking vaporeon laid on the ground, curled around a much smaller eevee, who unlike her, was fast asleep. Storm's eyelids slowly draped over her eyes on occasion as she leaned on the smaller pokemon next to her. I resisted a bit of a giggle and walked over to the pair, apparently going unnoticed, seeing as neither of them had any real reaction to me. Storm's head laid still on the ground, her eyes no longer wanting to open. I ran my paw down the back of her neck, causing her to smile lightly on the ground.

"I'm not quite asleep you know." She said in a slightly mocking tone. "Good effort though." She let out a snicker and opened her eyes again, looking up at me.

"What do you mean good effort? I had no intentions of sneaking up on you." I told her, turning my head away and looking to the sky.

"You suck at lying." Storm pushed me to the ground with her tail, and I was now lying about a foot away, with a sore back. "Although, once more, good effort." She pat my head with a paw.

"I know, I know." I sighed. "Worth a shot, though, right?"

"I dunno, I like that you can't lie to me if your life depended on it. It means you can't ever have any secrets." Storm smirked.

"Not like I would hide anything from you in the first place." I gave her a large smile.

"Trust me, I know that too. I get to hear about alllll of your ridiculous theories with no grounds whatsoever to believe any of them."

"Now that's just rude…" I tried my best to exaggerate an insulted face.

"You say it's just rude as if I'm supposed to believe the crazy things that come out of your mouth when you get into legends of the world." Storm giggled and put her paw under my chin, lifting my head up. "Sometimes I think you might have hit your hit sometime during your life and in came this weird obsession with fairytales."

"Again, how rude…" I cleared my throat. "You don't know everything that the world holds, who's to say that there aren't legendaries closer than we think? Or phenomenons that they control in every day of our lives?"

"Alrighty then, enlighten me for the hundredth time." Storm took in a large breath. "Come on, hit me with your best shot."

My eyes lit up and I nodded excitedly, with what was perhaps too hopeful of a gleam in my eye, because I knew I was just going to get made fun of after this.

"Then, let me tell you one of the tales from a place really close to us!" I cleared my throat once more, ready to elaborate. "One of my very reliable sources states that there's a trio of legendaries that all reside in semi-large bodies of water. They're always separate, but all in a similar environment, located around the world. Their names are Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. The beings of knowledge, emotion, and willpower respectively. They don't come out to passerbys though, not unless they have a good reason to, hence why there's so little documentation about them. Here's what draws them out: For Uxie, immense knowledge about a subject he may not be familiar with. Azelf, those who refuse to give up, no matter what the situation. And Mesprit, two pokemon showing an extraordinarily strong emotional bond between one another, she can feel the strength of one's emotions, especially when they're showing affection for another. Now, there's a lake not too far from here in the forest, isn't there? According to the maps I've gathered, there are two other lakes of the same exact size and properties, spread out the same distance from one another. The same exact distance. I think these are the lakes where these beings reside in, but we haven't seen the one near us because we haven't demonstrated a reason for whichever one is there to come out, at least, we haven't demonstrated it in a place they could see. There are old stories about young couples coming to a specific lake that was described to be almost exactly like the one in this forest, and they claim to have seen Mesprit slowly rise out, and smile at them. Isn't that just amazing!? That something like that can happen so close to us!?"

Storm gave me nothing but a blank stare. "You sound like you're mentally insane to be honest." She said bluntly.

I lowered my head to the ground, defeated.

"I swear I'll prove to you that they exist, just you wait!" I shouted enthusiastically.

"If you're so ready to prove it to me, how about you do it after Kuro's birthday at least? You should be focused on that for now." She told me with a sigh.

"I already set up all of the traps we need to keep us safe for a trip, don't worry. Everything is set and prepared!" I gave a giddy smile. "He'll have a great time!"

"Let's hope, if not, then it's your fault." Storm giggled once more.

"You're so cruel…" I replied in an exaggerated voice, nuzzling her cheek. "Spare me from your torture mistresssss."

"Fine, fine. You'll be spared just this once." Storm tried to match my exaggeration when it came to voice tone.

"Hooray! Thank you for your mercy, mistress." I bowed my head.

"Anything to make you happy, love." She planted a soft kiss on my head and changed her position so her face was right in front of mine. I just stared into her eyes, smiling brightly. She returned what was a nearly identical gesture. After a few seconds, I slowly closed my eyes, and pressed my forehead against hers.

 _Maybe some rest for tomorrow is a good idea._

* * *

 **Kuro**

The large pond before me was glistening, somehow sparkling despite how dark this place usually is. Once glance downward revealed my battered reflection, something I would rather not look at. I needed to rest though, and this was the closest area without a high chance of getting mauled while I was off-guard. I had my senses perked just in case any ferals made their way over here, but it wasn't likely. I felt at least a little bit comfortable to close my eyes and take some time to catch my breath.

I've been non stop moving for a while now, and despite the fact my body didn't feel extremely weak anymore, I have no real clue how far I've walked. It was a very long way, that's all I had to go on. Miles and miles of unfamiliar land eventually led to something I recognized, that being this forest. Having my bearings again was nice, but from here on, I wasn't sure what to do. I knew exactly where I was, I had options, but I was still unsure.

I could go to Myriad, visit the same building I initially did when I found… when I was

exploring on my own, and I'd probably find Core, or whoever else may be working there. I could talk to them, and have a way back to the Nest. Alternatively, I can spend time, here, live in this forest like I used to. At this point, that seemed almost like the better way to go. If I went back to the Nest, who's to say I would do anything beyond attracting more trouble? That's what held me back from the decision being black and white. _Plus… I wouldn't…_ I shook my head.

It wasn't a good idea to go back to the Nest, I don't know if I would even be able to face the others I've met there anymore. What would their reaction be if I walked up to the Nest with a discolored eye, charred fur, and scars beneath that? I look like a totally different pokemon now, and I feel like one too. It wasn't simple anymore, to reunite with everyone at the Nest. There was no easy way to look certain pokemon in the eye and act as if nothing had happened. And as long as I couldn't do that, the option of staying here until further notice was way better in my head.

 _That shouldn't upset me. It's better for everyone else if I stay here, better if I'm on my own. Better for…_ I could barely manage to keep specific names out of my head.

I looked down at my gently distorted reflection. I still looked like a total mess, despite how I physically felt, my appearance was no different from the beginning. _Maybe… The Nest isn't the worst idea…_

My ear twitched in response to some unnatural movement behind me, and without thinking, I dove forward, head first into the pond. The water was freezing, which I suppose I should have been ready for. I started paddling forward, swimming a little deeper down, and trying to reach the other side.

 _There's no way that was a feral._

* * *

 **Jewel**

 _He heard me?_

I growled quietly, staring at a large-looking pond from about halfway up a tree. The violent ripples in said pond confirmed that I was sloppy in my approach, and gave myself away too quickly. Annoyed, I jumped down from my position, and walked up to the body of water. He looked no better than before, he was probably still hurt from before, I could take him down easily in that state. I leaned over the pond, looking for traces of the umbreon. He couldn't stay under forever, and as soon as he rose up, I would pounce.

I wasn't a pokemon who liked to fight, not regularly, but I was good at it. I was better than anyone else back at base, by quite a margin too. I was told that I have 'natural talent' and that's the reason why. I really wished that someone else was born with this 'talent,' someone who actually has a desire to use it. If I had to be grateful for it sometimes, now would be that time, where I actively want to use it.

A blur of motion caught my eye, under the surface of the water in front of me. I focused on it, possibly the pokemon I was waiting to pop out for oxygen. Once he did, it was as simple as one slash to his weak body. One swift motion, that's all it would take. _It's been a while, come on…_

The blurred shape remained motionless for a split second, and the very quickly grew in size, approaching close to the water's surface. I positioned myself to launch over to him right as he exited the water, this was going to be simple and quick. I locked onto the blurry figure under the water, ready to attack.

Before he finally made it all the way up, a sudden flash of light came from exactly where I was looking, and it was bright. Too bright for me to keep my eyes opened. On reflex, they shut tightly, a dull ache covering both of them. I lifted my forelegs in front of my head, once more, on total reflex. A loud splash rang out, coming from right in front of me. Before I had a chance to react, something impacted my chest, tossing me back a few feet. I caught myself with one of my forelegs and jumped up, shaking my head and opening my eyes. Everything was blurry for a few seconds, but it all filtered out soon. Once I could see again, there was nothing different in the scene before me. Nothing but a clear lake, and the forest surrounding it.

I quietly growled, turning, spinning all around to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Sadly, I couldn't pinpoint him anywhere. _Damn it!_

I took a breath and calmed myself down as much as I could, my eyes now tracing the ground. Certain patches of grass seemed to have been off place, as if more than just nature had moved them. I crouched down and noticed that another small area looked strange, not very far away from the previous one. Another leg's length away was yet another, and another.

Without hesitation, I followed the track, keeping my eyes and ears alert. He couldn't have gotten far at all, especially not in his injured state. I had my hopes high for being able to track him down and jam my claw into his neck. This was my specialty, even if I didn't like fighting, I knew how to work with the environment around me. This was my first time in this area, even though it's already been discovered by other nomads. I don't usually go this far out, but whether it was my first or hundredth time here, it didn't matter. I knew what I was doing, and I wasn't going to be outmatched, no matter what.

My stale motions continued to follow every little discrepancy I noticed, every sign that the nature here had been tampered with. _If I can get close enough, maybe I'll pick up the scent of his blood. Then he's screwed._

Wanting to give it a shot at least, I dipped my head down and inhaled right above one of the small out of place patches in the grass below. Much to my surprise, I actually picked up on something, the wonderful smell of another's vital fluids. I hated it, and had to resist gagging, but it was something to now follow. Another detail I picked up on was the slightly red tint at the tips of each blade of grass in each patch I passed. _His paw maybe?_

I stood up, stretching my back out. I tipped my nose to the air and attempted to find a scent to now follow, much easier than tracking him the conventional way. It didn't take much effort for me to notice a stronger source of the same smell, coming from just west of my position. I turned and bolted immediately, finding more signs that life had been here. Aside from the obvious tracks lining the grass, I noticed claw marks on a few of the trees I happened to pass by. _He was trying to get through here as quickly as possible, he could have used these for leverage._

The many obvious traces of another pokemon took me farther west, then north. Every now and then I would check to see if the scent of his blood was any stronger, which it was, albeit barely. I knew I was on the right track. _He must have screwed up somewhere with those injuries, then I'll find him._

It only took another minute of hunting to come across something curious. On the ground in front of me, under a tree a bit shorter than the rest, there was a huge circle of flattened grass, as if something had fallen on it, or slammed down on top of it. _Maybe… A tree that withered away?_ I wondered, but it wasn't important.

My head snapped to the rustling of greenery, directly left of my body. I immediately shot over to the small bush it came from, knowing exactly who was there. _I have you!_

About halfway through my mad dash, I felt something slick one of my hind legs, which paused me. Out of the corner of my eye, a short plant twitched. In the time of that twitch, I felt smooth, wet sensation wrap around one of my legs, before pulling me down to the ground. I grunted in frustration and sliced the plant at its base, ignoring what looked like slime or a wet plant wrapped around my left hind leg. I stood back up, but by then, it was too late. A heavy force slammed into me from the side, causing me to roll over on the ground, now laying on my back. Not even a second passed before I felt pressure right in the center of both of my forelegs, harsh pressure. The same sensation was quickly placed on the top of my hind legs, right below my stomach. It didn't hurt, but it wasn't comfortable. After all, I now couldn't move a muscle if I wanted to.

Right above me, pinning me to the ground was the umbreon I've been putting all of my effort into hunting, now with total control over me. I stared into his deep red iris, as well as his ghost white one. I couldn't resist growling, and attempting to struggle, but to no avail. Since I wasn't getting out of this position, I spit in his face instead.

"A trap? Coward." That was all I could think of saying. I didn't know if I actually thought that, or I was just frustrated at myself for walking into it. "Spending time making something like that in the middle of a random forest… aren't you proud?" I may have crossed a verbal line, because as soon as that left my mouth, I was met with a hateful glare.

"I didn't make them." Was all he said. For some reason, his gaze softened for a moment, but no longer than that.

"Like it matters. So what now? Am I dead? Are you going to crush my windpipe? Break my neck?" I taunted, honestly as a coping mechanism. I was actually terrified.

"Why are you chasing me?" He replied with a calm voice, not what I was expecting. He also didn't move his paws at all, so I was still totally at his mercy. That didn't stop me from scoffing at his question though.

"Why..? Are you freaking serious!?" I shouted at him, but he didn't even flinch. "How about you take a guess, huh? Take a freaking guess!"

Instead of talking, he merely gazed down at me. I hated the look he had in his eyes. Maybe I just hated everything about him automatically. Either that, or again, I was just afraid. Although, he didn't look like he wanted to guess, just another thing to hate about him.

"You said you'd try to help, didn't you? That you would be a bargaining chip? After saying that, you come back from down there with nothing but-"

"It wasn't me." I was interrupted. "Things went south, and took a turn I wasn't ready for. One of them did him in." _You can't be serious…_

"Then why the hell are you alive!? Why are you here!? How could you have gotten out alive if you didn't sacrifice him to get out!?" I was livid at this point.

I was again, met with silence, though not for as long. "I killed them before they killed me. That's why." He stated emotionlessly. _What kind of heartless bastard…_

My growling grew louder with time, I couldn't help myself. "And where the hell does Ethos fit into this!?" I saw him bite his lip and made him avery his eyes. "How could you have gotten out unless you put him up to be killed!?"

"One of them did it…" He said in a quiet voice. "I was about to give myself up, and one of them just randomly called it off, and decided to kill him. Nothing more, nothing less." His voice was fast, as if he wanted to get away from the topic. I didn't care.

"I doubt they just decided to call it off, you're leaving something out! Tell me the full story!"

"I did…" His voice grew even softer, but I could tell he was lying. Something else happened down there between all four of them, and that something is the reason Ethos died. I knew it had to be this guy's fault, no matter what.

"Stop dodging the truth!" I began struggling harder against his force, but the position he had on me was way too much, I couldn't break free. "I know why you're lying about all of this!"

Just like before, no reply. Something else happened instead. I felt his paws trembling. He was either scared, or on edge, and just like previously, I didn't care.

"You're the reason he's dead! It's all you!" I shouted, and the eyelid above his blind eye twitched. "You said you'd protect him, didn't you!? The why the hell are you alive, and why is he dead!? Tell me that!"

Still nothing but silence. I just got angrier and angrier.

"You should be dead." I tried to stop shouting, it was straining my voice. "It should have been you instead of him."

Another long pause.

"I know." He replied.

I was taken off guard, not only because he actually gave me a reply, but the content of said reply as well. I felt the pressure on my body loosen, and the umbreon hopped off of me, standing a few feet away. I pushed myself off of the ground and looked at him, but his eyes were off somewhere far away. His trembling was now visible, affecting the entirety of both his forelegs. I don't know why, but some of my anger was drowned away, though not much of it. I didn't feel the need to slice his head off even though I knew his guard was down, that was an improvement.

"Please just leave me alone." I tilted my head, not bothering to fix my angry glare.

"Why should-"

"Do you really have anything to gain from this?" I was interrupted once again, and he turned to look at me. "What are you planning to do? Kill me? Go ahead. Just keep in mind that it's not fun, or fulfilling. You won't get anything out of it." _What the hell..?_

My growling started up again. "I'd get closure on the reason for why Ethos is dead! That's you! You're that reason!" I yelled, no less willing to eliminate him right on the spot.

"Closure…" He repeated me, and looked away again. "His death already has closure." I dug one of my claws into the ground, ready to pounce.

"What closure!? You need to die for that to happen! His killer needs to die!" I took a few steps closer to him, ignoring a freezing gust of wind.

"I'm sorry," He bowed his head, baffling me. "But I didn't kill him. His killer is already dead."

"His direct killer is dead…" I said, looking down. "But you're the reason he was there in the first place, it's all your fault!"

The umbreon's ear twitched unevenly. "I guess you're right, huh?" He asked, though not directly to me it seemed. "Maybe I should be dead then."

His tone was confusing to me, more sombre than I was ready for.

"But, at least let me do it myself." His head turned towards me again, and he looked at me with a serious stare. "If that's how I need to atone for Ethos… and for killing the other two… then I'll do it myself. If you try to accelerate that process right now, I'll resist."

"You really think you can fight me in that condition?" I asked with an insulting tone. _But when he pinned me down, he didn't feel injured…_

"Don't be naive. Looks are deceiving." _Bullshit…_

"Then do it." I told him. "It's what you deserve, so do it."

"I need to talk to someone first." His eyes looked downwards. "He can tell everyone else… Then I'll do it."

"You better." I scoffed. "I wish I could see you suffer first."

"You've already seen that."

I opened my mouth to yell at him, but without waiting for a reply, he dashed away, much quicker than I thought he was capable of. It didn't take more than a few seconds for him to leave my sight, and I was left to my own thoughts. I didn't feel the need to chase after him, I could easily sense truth behind his words.

"Suffer before you die…" I muttered, before turning around and slowly walking away.

* * *

Hello Readers!

So finals are happening, sorry if I'm once again, slow on updates. But after this, I'll be free for the semester, and then I get to waste all the time I wasn't hammering away at my keyboard, so yay!

Thank you the messages and support, they mean a lot to me!

See You Next Chapter!


	52. Suprises

**Shiro**

My mouth stretched into a yawn as I rubbed my left eye with a forepaw. I wasn't doing anything in particular, so I really had no reason to be tired, I just sort of was. I shook my head and stretched out my legs, still laying down in my small bed. I was actually offered to officially have a room at the Nest, one with Charm and I. He took the offer, wanting to give Kuro and Naru space, especially when Kuro comes back, but I declined it. I'd rather stay in this room as long as I'm allowed to. I felt safe here, and while I knew that other rooms in the Nest were no less safe than this one, I just felt more so here. I asked Naru and she didn't mind, she actually seemed happy to have me stay here, and assured me that Kuro would be no less glad that I'd be living with the two of them. Since there wasn't any complications, I was more than happy to remain in the same room.

I accidentally slid my paw over a small book next to my bed, one that I had been reading. Naru got it for me from someone else working in the Nest, noticing that I don't have too much to do here when I'm not walking around with her. She thought that she may need to teach me how to read, but I was easily able to pick up on it. I have no clue where I learned how to read, but I decided not to overthink it. Wondering about where I came from did nothing but drive my head in circles, there was way too much I had no clue about to really have any real idea of anything regarding who I am or where I came from. I have nothing but fuzzy images in my head, images that don't even seem real, but they're in my head so they must be.

I rolled over onto my back and closed my eyes. I thought of Naru, who's been acting sorta… off lately. At times, it seemed like her usually cheery and happy attitude would drop, but just for a second. Like, she would be talking, and for a split moment, her tone would sound sad. It never lasted any longer than that, which is the weirdest thing about this. When she was upset, she wouldn't usually hide it. At least, I don't think she ever has. I've seen her feeling down, and if she was willing to show me her feelings like that at all, then why would she hide them at times too? To me, it didn't make sense. Although I will admit, she's been more quiet than usual for a while now. _But things might just not be as lively with only the two of us. That would make sense, right?_

"I'm sure that's it." I said to myself with a small sigh. I hated how much I didn't know. It bothered me even more when I figured out that I love to explore and learn, yet this is something I don't think I can figure out. At least, not any time in the near future. Maybe I'll have flashbacks, or weird visions, but I won't learn anything new. I mumbled to myself and lifted my forepaws into the air.

"Maybe I'll find something… Maybe…" My eyes traced up one of my forelegs, to my right forepaw. I paused though, noticing something off. My head slowly tilted to the side. _What… the…_

On the center of the top of my paw was a small, black blur. It looked almost like ink, spread out like an unknown, random shape. After staring for a solid minute or two, I brought my paw closer to my head, and sniffed it. It didn't have a unique smell, it didn't smell like anything actually. _Did I step in something..? But then wouldn't it smell..?_

The black blob didn't look like it was on my fur though, almost as if it merged into my paw. I took my other forepaw and rubbed it against the blob, but nothing happened. The shape remained exactly the same, and my totally clean paw looked exactly the same, so it couldn't have been ink or anything. _Wait, how do I know what ink is in the first place?_

I placed my now seemingly marked paw on my forehead, annoyed at myself. I always found a way to put more in my head to figure out, I couldn't hold myself back apparently. I tried as hard as I could to think of where the new symbol could have come from, but I didn't come to any reasonable conclusion. It wasn't there yesterday though, or the day before that, or any time I can remember. It's just kinda here. I really wish my new desire to explore didn't come at a time when all I knew how to do is place unsolvable questions in my head constantly.

I felt a faint ache in my head, making me squint my eyes. A rough side effect of me thinking too much, that seemed reasonable. As time passed though, the ache transformed into dizziness. My head was leaned back against my bed, perfectly still. There wasn't anything that would cause me to suddenly get dizzy. Behind my closed eyes, a blur of color began forming. Light, autumn-like colors in a shape I couldn't make out.

The image didn't remain long enough for me to take a breath, as soon as it was there, it vanished. I felt weirdly… attached to it though. As if it was something I knew well, something I was overly familiar with. I didn't get the chance to compare it with anything though, it was already fading from my memory as soon as it introduced itself. I suddenly felt sick.

"Ugh…" I slowly opened my eyes and flopped over onto my stomach. I had an uneasy feeling spreading throughout my stomach, I couldn't make out quite what it was. I was however, able to tell how foreign this sensation was. Nausea? Not really. It had a hint of pain in it, too different for it to just be a stomach bug. I think anyway. I know nothing about that stuff. I tried my best to comprehend whatever I felt at any given moment, but I didn't succeed too often. Better to try than just lay down all confused. Well, I was still laying down, and very confused… But it's the effort that matters. I think anyway.

My stomach calmed down after a few moments. I slowly dragged my paw on it, with some vague hope that would keep the strange feeling at bay. Whether that was actually the case or not I would find out soon enough. At least, I hoped so. My ear twitched to the slow opening of the entrance to our room, causing me to turn my head with suppressed excitement.

* * *

 **Shine**

My legs were a bit wobbly.

To be honest, there was a bit of a blank space in my memory now, after I… did something. Passed out I think. The last thing I remember is the overreaction from Apex when I mentioned being able to control a group with charisma, after that, blank. _Wait wait, what about the mission?_

The air around me felt really dense, my surroundings looked as if I was in a rocky room of some kind. Well, the walls around me were made of rocks, more accurately. Each rigid edge was a light brown, very sturdy-looking, and not evenly aligned with one another. It was almost as if I was still in the cave we entered for our assignment, but I could tell it was different. Especially because it wasn't nearly pitch black. My back had a rather sudden ache, I suppressed a groan once it hit me. I was laying on something rough, and after taking a second to think, I quickly realized that it was a rock, just like the ones pointing from the walls. _Ouch... Least' it's not as bad as the ankle weights._

"I'm an… exception? You're confusing me bud."

Crescent's voice made my body jump a little, I forgot she was in the same room as me. Her alongside Apex that is.

"That's what you need to advertise yourself as here. I'll vouch for you. Otherwise, this is a very bad place for you to be." Apex replied to Crescent, in a rather strict tone. _Are we somewhere dangerous now? Or, more dangerous?_

"Sooooooo why did you take me here if it's that dangerous?" Crescent said sarcastically. _I'm sorta curious too. Granted, I have no clue where we are._

"Because I have the ability to nullify that danger. As long as you don't act in a aggressive manner to anyone, you'll be fine. I already explained the situation to them." _Them? Who's them?_

"Them? Who's them?" Crescent curiously asked, sounding almost as if she was on edge.

"The pokemon that live here. They can be rather rude to your kind, but they'll trust my word."

"My… kind?" Crescent tilted her head. "DO you have a problem with me being snarky to you? Should've have just said some-"

"No, no." Apex interrupted with a sigh. "Your typing. You being a fairy is the problem."

"Pardon? I was born- wait, no I wasn't." She looked to the ground, as if she had just made a self-changing revelation. "What does that have to do with anything though?"

"They've been taught to hate those of your type. Not only that, but those who are dark types as well." Apex explained. I admittedly got a little worried at the sound of that. "However, they will trust my word. I'm certain of it."

"You their leader or something?"

"Not precisely. I'm their… never mind. That's not important right now. Yesterday, we completed the task you two were assigned. You're not obligated to stay here any longer, so feel free to leave at your own leisure." Apex turned away, fiddling with something between one of his claws.

"Uh… So we did something?" Crescent questioned. "Gonna be honest, I don't remember doing anything besides walking for a bit." _I'm the same way, strange._

"You both did. You did more than I was expecting." Apex turned to us. "You made a discovery, a very important one. And for that, I must thank you." He bowed his head, none of my confusion faded though.

"Buuuuut, don't we have to report back to Ark? What do we say? Or wait, more importantly, what in the hell did we do?" Crescent asked, dumbfounded. _Come to think of it, didn't we find something? And then… um… do something?_

"Just tell him that you accomplished exactly what you needed to. Nothing more, nothing less. I'll fill him in on specifics." Apex lifted his head, turning away once more.

"Isn't this kind of thing important to know though? Like, so we know we didn't kill anyone without remorse or almost kill you or something?" _Why do you always jump to the conclusion of murder?_

"It isn't." Apex simply said.

 _Okay… This is weird._

The whole time we've been with Apex, I've been looking the other way. I'm trying to not assume the worst of everything he says or does, even if I don't quite understand it. There's only so much I can ignore without answers though. From context, I could assume that we're somewhere near where we met up with him in the first place, but, why exactly are the locals here against certain types? And beyond that, why do they listen to him specifically? _What in the world did we get ourselves into..?_

Without warning, one of the rocks that made up the walls surrounding us made a loud, indecipherable noise, as it slowly slid out of place. In its wake, a light leading to a new area, outside of… this. A few trees caught my eye, but before anything else, Apex stood in the new entrance, taking a step out.

"I suggest that you two leave. Go back to your camp and Preport to Ark that you succeeded once you get the chance. Do not wander, do not overstay your welcome. Every extra second you spend here is more risk to account for." Apex told us sternly. "We met up about a mile west of here. Head there immediately and-"

"Why?"

Apex slowly turned his head as I cut him off.

"Why are you claiming that we're safe, and then telling us to leave as soon as possible? It doesn't make much sense." I interjected.

A long and drawn out period of silence passed. Crescent spent the whole time switching her eyes from Apex, and then back to me.

"You aren't owed an explanation." He replied, staring me down. He didn't look hostile, but I couldn't help but feel an air of animosity coming from him.

"And we aren't obligated to listen to what you say." I challenged.

"When did you get a mouth?" He took a step towards me, shooting a bit of fear into me. I tried my very best to stand strong, despite this. "The mission I was to accomplish with you is over. We are strangers once again. This is my territory. I suggest you leave. Now." Apex growled.

Another long pause took place.

"You have some sort of control over the pokemon that live here, right? That bit is obvious." I gulped, starting to sweat a little bit. "You wouldn't also happen to be the one-"

Apex lunged forward, not giving any foreseeable restraint in his speed. I let out a small gasp and ducked down, rolling forward in an awkward flop. I felt the claws of Apex graze the tips of my ears and I tumbled forward. Right after that, a very audible crack echoed in the small room we were in, despite it being open to the outside now. After falling on my stomach, I stood back up and turned around, trembling.

"Hey! What the hell!?" Crescent shouted, stepping beside me and using her ribbons to hold me steady before I fell over again. I got the chance to raise my eyes to her, only to see her bear her fangs and let out a growl.

Apex held still, totally silent. He removed his claw from the rocky wall, now split into fourths, barely holding together. "I told you to leave. You're not in a position to argue, or gather information." He said, turning his body back towards the two of us.

"So you attack us!?" Crescent shouted back, making sure I could stand. "Chill out dude! What happened to being allies!?"

"I never called you my allies. We were to accomplish a task together, that's all. If you pry for information, you better expect the consequences." Aven reeled one of his arms back, the tips of his claws glowing a dim magenta. "I don't know where your suspicions lie exactly, but slander is harmful to my cause." I coughed a few times, probably a stress cough. _It's not slander if it's true._

"It's not-" Crescent stopped herself from talking, tossing me aside with her extended ribbons. I collided with the wall, knocking the breath out of me for a quick second. I slumped to the ground and watched as what looked like a pink lightning strike sped across my field of vision. My trembling picked up a little bit, as I tried my best to push myself off of the ground. _What would that have done if it hit me..?_

"I don't have any desire to continue listening to you." Apex leaned backwards, his eyes forming what I could only describe as a terrifying glare. "Ark would believe me if I told him you two died in unexpected combat."

"Well shit…" Crescent crouched down, surprisingly enough, smirking. "SOOOO, what you're saying is that, one we survive this fight, we have confirmation that you're some kind of manipulative… dictator?"

"You won't be alive."

Apex didn't hesitate. A small ball formed in his hand, glowing a much darker shade of pink, compared to the strange lightning strike earlier. As soon as it formed, it was tossed right at Crescent. My legs were still uneasy, and my head felt fuzzy. I couldn't do anything but sit there and watch as the attack cut through the air.

Crescent licked her lips and strafed the attack, the sphere barely missing her and flying out of the open crevice. She dashed at Apex, keeping her head low. Apex approached in the same manner as her, reaching his arm forward and seemingly trying to grab Crescent. She slipped through that as well, wrapping one of her ribbons around his arm. "Bad move buddy!"

Crescent's ribbon began to glow, similar to the way it did when I first met her, and she healed my wounds. Apex had a noticeable change in expression, and he brought his other arm down, wanting to swat Crescent away like a bug. Instead of trying to stay latched onto Apex, Crescent detached her ribbons and rolled away, but didn't quite dodge the swing. It connected with the side of her body, but not at a proper angle to hurt much. She stumbled back a few inches, but didn't show many signs of pain other than that. Despite her ribbons no longer connecting her to Apex, there was a faint, glitter like substance on Apex's arm. He looked down at it and grunted.

"You sure you want to pick a fight with a fairy? Or sorry, an 'Angel?'" Crescent taunted, letting out a devilish giggle. _Now isn't the time to mess around…_

"Your species is irrelevant to me." Apex looked at Crescent once more, his glare not quite as hard as before, but it was still evident. "You can try your best to dismantle my ability to kill you, but it won't help you."

"Mind telling me why you're standing still? Hmmmm?~" Crescent took a step closer to Apex, but in a strange manner. It was as if she forgot he was attempting to kill us.

Apex remained motionless. HIs eyes though, were now slowly closing. Once they were hidden behind his eyelids, he muttered a few incomprehensible words. I couldn't make them out, they sounded like gibberish. After his indecipherable rambling was done, his eyes slowly opened again. "Kill the fairy and her friend."

I tilted my head in confusion. I was soon given an explanation, in a manner other than words.

From the opening in the room we were held in, a hitmontop sped in, rotating almost faster than I could track while balancing on their head. They rushed at Crescent, slamming into her and sending her into the rocky wall adjacent to me. Her mouth opened with a surprised gasp, and she slumped to the floor, catching her breath. My body shuddered, as the hitmontop backed up to the entrance again, no longer spinning as fast. They hopped off the the ground, half-flipping onto their own four appendages. RIght behind them, was about five more pokemon, holding mindless stares. Behind them, were ten more. From my perspective, an army had gathered close to us, ready to attack.

I froze in place, taking in a heavy gulp. My mind went blank for a split second, as if time around me had stopped. I felt my heart beating out of my chest, pounding as if it was trying to burst out. My shaking had oddly stopped, but my feelings of fear were in no way gone. I couldn't hear anything, as if the world had gone silent alongside frozen time. My head, my body, everything felt blank.

 _How do I get myself into these situations..?_

My trembling didn't settle down, but I knew something needed to be done. As to what that something was, I had no idea. My eyes were trained on Crescent. She almost always had the same glare when she her situation was in a dire state. It's something I've noticed over the time we've spent with one another. Behind the aggressor's glare she always put on, there was undoubtedly a hint of fear. She wouldn't outright say that, but I could see it. Although, alongside that emotion, she always had something else too. A lack of hesitation in her actions, her mind seemingly unchangeable once it was set on her next action. I don't know how she did it, it's not something I could mirror. I would be lying though, if I said I didn't admire it.

 _Supremely confident or not, she must know as well as I do how screwed we are._

The hitmontop flipped over onto their head again, looking ready to charge. Right after the one leading the pack attacks, it's likely the rest will follow. What happens then? Well, other than the obvious conclusion? _I… I don't want to find out._

My hind legs stiffened, and I jammed whatever anxiety I had down as far as I could. I took in a large gulp of air and held my breath, and leapt forward, despite my wobbly legs. I essentially tackled Crescent, bringing her to the ground with me, which wasn't exactly my intention, but it would lead to the same effect. She let out a surprised gasp, but I couldn't pay attention to that right now. I closed my eyes, wrapping the two of us in a bright glow. My body went from feeling oddly blank to light, as if all of my weight had vanished. I grit my teeth and focused, spreading the feeling to Crescent as best I could.

 _Please work..!_

My body changed properties once more, now feeling rather disconnected, detached from everything else. Almost like feeling numb, but on a much more intense scale. The sensation lasted for a few quick seconds, before resetting. All of the weight to my body returned at once, which admittedly wasn't too pleasant, but at the same time, it could have been worse. I slowly opened my eyes, and was overwhelmed by the amount of color surrounding me. I couldn't see the interior of a small rocky room anymore, now I could only make out the lush greenery that we witnessed on the way here. I turned my head, looking all around, taking in as much intel as my eyes could deliver to my brain, ending with a sigh of extreme relief.

My relief transitioned to worry for a split second, but that was shot down when I moved one of my forepaws, feeling something soft, not the ground I was laying on. I was half-draped over Crescent, both of us laying on the ground. _Thank… Arceus…_ I let out the biggest sigh of relief I ever had.

"Wha..?" Crescent muttered in a voice more confused than I've ever heard before. "Huh..?" She slowly turned her head, and the two of us locked eyes. "Why are we out here and why are you laying on top of me?"

"I think I got us out of there." I told her, back to shaking. "And I guess this is just the position we were in before we warped?"

"You… warped us? You can do that?" She asked, talking with a mix of intrigue and general curiosity.

"Yeah, I can. Or… I can now." I had a hard time keeping my body up. I ended up involuntarily leaning my head on Crescent's fur. "I'm so glad that worked…"

I heard a light sigh come from Crescent. "A little warning would have been nice. For a second there I thought you joined them."

"S-Sorry, I wasn't really thinking the most clearly I ever have." I coughed a little bit, trying to take in as much air as I could. _That takes a ton out of you…_

"Yeah yeah, don't sweat it. Are you okay?" I felt her body shift under me, giving me a more comfortable position on the ground. "You're trembling."

"I-I think I'm okay. Just really drained…" I let my eyes slowly close. "Are you holding up well too?"

"I'm perfectly fine. The fight never really broke out. Honestly, if it had, I don't know what kind of situation we would be in."

"I'd rather not think about it if it's all the same…" I dug the side of my head into Crescent, still attempting to calm down. I felt my trembling lessen, but it was certainly still there.

"Fair enough, you stopped us from experiencing it." I felt a gentle touch on the top of my head. "You have to make sure to take it easy though, you look like you're half dead."

"Did I really have a choice though?" I felt Crescent stroke the top of my head. It helped calm me down more than I was previously.

"I suppose you didn't." A few moments were spent in silence. "There's no need to be so scared anymore. Take a breath and calm down."

"R-Right…" I put one of my forepaws on the other, trying my best to relax. Not being alone right now really did benefit my ability to settle my mind.

"You're a lot more sharp than I thought. I didn't have any idea that guy was so… you know." _I'm surprised you didn't pick up on it._

"If I didn't say anything though, we would have gotten out a lot more safely. I nearly got us killed on the spot…" I lamented.

"You also saved us from suffering through that. Don't undersell yourself." _That's kind of hard._ "Plus, now we know what kind of pokemon we were dealing with, you really think he would have just stood by and watched us leave even if you kept quiet?"

"Maybe not, but I still think that was stupid and impulsive."

"Stupid and impulsive maybe. But it worked out in the end. Can't say I've never did something stupid that ended up working out." _I wonder what kind of crap you've gotten yourself into…_

"I'm worried that we'll be a target now…"

"It'll be okay. Let that guy come at us without his armada, I'll rock his freaking world for trying what he did." The same air of confidence that Crescent showed in her eyes reflected in her voice.

"Make sure not to get yourself killed please."

"Same goes for you. I can't bail you out of every situation after all." Crescent chuckled, which amused me.

"Wasn't I the one-"

"HUSH!" She put a little more pressure on my head, which was enough of a tell for me to close my mouth. Before that though, I felt the edges of my mouth curl upwards a little.

I nuzzled into the side of Crescent's body and let my body rest, alongside my mind. I really did need it.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Long time no see! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Or happy holidays, sorry if I offended anyone. -w-

Long story short, I was busy for most of Winter break, and now that I'm back in my dorm and back to attending classes for the spring semester, those will keep me busy too, which isn't fun at all. Luckily though, I do have a two hour break between two of my classes, and I've been using that to get the majority of my writing and revisions done if I have no homework to get to, so that's good! For now anyway. Once I get more work, we'll see. :p

It's 4 A.M. right now.

See You Next Chapter!


	53. The Right Choice

**Kuro**

"Do you really think that's the best idea?"

My head hung low, not directly looking forward to the streets of Myriad as I walked, nor at the pokemon talking to me. I couldn't particularly get myself to focus on either, so I stopped trying altogether.

"What else would I do?" I replied.

"I don't know, but no matter what put you down like this, you have to realize exactly what you just told me. How can you even think that way to begin with?" His voice was slightly panicked, off guard in a way. I guess I should have expected that he wouldn't be ready for something like this.

"I can't think of anything that would change my mind. I have my set of limited options, and I'm going with one of them. Whichever I think about in the moment."

"So you're leaving something as… sensitive as this to chance?"

"Essentially, yes. The outcome will be the same either way." _I just need to think of a proper method._

"You've got to be kidding me…" I heard a loud sigh from my right. "Do you have any idea how valuable your life is?"

"Not very."

"Yes very." A firm grip was placed on one of my shoulders, causing me to stop in my tracks. Hundreds of steps must have been taken by the pokemon surrounding us, all of them minding their own business. "I don't think you have any idea how your choice would affect everyone you associate with. Think about it for a second instead of automatically jumping to the conclusions that are rotating around in your head right now."

"No amount of thinking will change anything." I took a step forward, shrugging off the hand putting pressure on me. "You can't change facts, no matter how hard you think."

"Your definition of a fact is severely flawed, Kuro." I tried to ignore him now, but that didn't stop him from trailing behind me. I wondered briefly if speeding up my walking would help, but I didn't want to bump into anyone. They already had to raise a few eyebrows when it came to my body's condition, no need to ram into them too.

"You need to let go of certain events, you can't let them stay in your head and slowly poison your brain. That's exactly what you're doing right now. Even if I don't know exactly what you're tossing around in there, that much is obvious to me." The voice grew in volume, and before I knew it, he was next to me again. _Why did he have to see me wandering?_

"It's because you don't know that you'd even suggest that." I was getting close to my destination, but I couldn't walk in there with him on me the whole time.

"Do you honestly think that I've never dealt with other pokemon going through a mental funk similar to yours? I can see the signs. No matter how vague you are about explaining everything, I know how you feel, and I know that you're making a mistake by submitting to-"

"It's not that simple." I interrupted, stopping once more. I was standing in front of the door to a building much larger than the rest in this town. This was the last place I visited before turning my back on where I lived before, and changed my life for the better. I wish it could have lasted longer than it did. Any break from the way I treated life before all that is more welcome than being totally stuck though.

The one talking to me stood behind me, not replying to me for a few moments. The silence was heavy, but I had to make sure he was gone before I walked in. Besides, my destination was closed to anyone who didn't have a Nest symbol somewhere on their body when it was this late. I couldn't let him just stay on me the whole time.

"Is that just it then?" I slowly turned my head, looking behind me, my eyes following his voice. "You're going to ignore everything aside from your narrow thought process, and let yourself follow what you're planning?" I didn't reply, as he pretty much hit the nail on its head. I didn't have much of a choice but to be narrow though. I didn't have options that allowed me to be flexible.

"No listening to reason at all?" He pushed on, trying to get me to talk more, to give him a chance to convince me otherwise. I needed him gone, so I remained silent, and turned back to the door. _Please just leave._

Another thick air of silence washed over us. I focused on the sounds of every pokemon around us, walking through the town. It was almost therapeutic, to listen to the movements of others, as opposed to letting others get into my head and mess with me. Whether that was his intention or not, I wasn't sure, but that's exactly what it felt like. Thus, I had no desire to continue our conversation. It was time to wait until he deemed it useless to try and talk to me.

Much to my relief, he did just that.

"If you won't listen, then fine." He sighed once more, this one sounding more disappointed. "I'll beg you then. Please, please think before you do anything idiotic. Think it out thoroughly. That'll set you straight."

I remained unmoving. It was difficult for me to ignore someone, especially for this long, but I wouldn't get him to leave any other way, so I had to stick to it. Almost a full minute passed, and no more remarks came from behind me. Just to make sure his voice wasn't getting lost in the indecipherable chatter from the groups of pokemon all around, I turned my head once again.

This time though, I found nobody.

It was strange, I didn't hear his steps when he left. It was almost as if he vanished. I wasn't worried enough about it to keep it in my head. I pushed on the door I was standing in front of with the top of one of my forepaws. It slid open easily, the door was unlocked and unguarded. I found that odd, but then again, if this place had a reputation, I doubt anyone had very much confidence when it came to breaking in.

My paws clashed with the floor I had only felt the texture of two other times, resulting in a wave of familiarity. The predominantly violet coloring of the building's interior hadn't changed one bit. Everything was exactly the same, so I was able to easily find my way to the front desk on the higher floor. The place was entirely empty, as it was closed. However, there was one pokemon I knew would be here. He spent a lot of time here, as he was required to. There was always a chance that his schedule would get changed, and I would be waltzing to a Raven I had never seen before, but I would take my chances. For once, it looked like I was lucky.

Behind the desk in the center of this mostly vacant room, fiddling with a plant he was clueless about, sat a bisharp. One who I had spent plenty of time communicating with. Likely hearing my paws clash with the ground, his head turned up to me. Never had I seen an expression of shock like the one he showed me upon recognition of my face. He fumbled with the plant he was just messing with, causing it to fall flat on the wide table. He paid the possibly poisonous part of nature no mind, practically leaping over his desk to stand in front of me.

We spent some time looking at one another without words. Realistically, it really hasn't been too long since we saw one another last. I didn't have an exact time frame, but I would say three weeks at the most. I had to admit though, it felt like eons. I felt his eyes trace my body, likely taking in all of the new burns, cuts, and bruises all over me. Strangely enough, it almost seemed as if he was more focused on those injuries than my newly colored eye. Then again, he must have seen a lot during his time working with the Nest, perhaps he's not surprised by things such as this as much as most would be.

I hated how I felt a tug in the center of my chest, a small spark of pain. I thought I had killed these kinds of temptations before I came here, but it looks as if I didn't do a good job. I felt the urge to burst into tears, the urge to just give in and let Core take me back to the Nest. There was still a part of me that wanted to pretend that I could just forget everything and keep on living with everyone. I suppressed it though.

"Am I really looking at you right now..?" Core said quietly, almost as if he was talking to himself. He crouched down, his right only a few inches above mine. Much to my surprise, he chuckled. "I'm not hallucinating, right? You're not a ghost coming to haunt me?"

I slowly shook my head, tempted to sigh. "I'm real." I simply said, my tone sticking close to stoic, but not completely. Emotions had a fun time leaking into my speech.

"You don't say! I'm glad to see you alive and in one piece! I'd hug you, but you seem like you've seen better days." Core smiled down at me with a gentle expression. "We're all still worried sick about you, but now we finally have some good news to hold onto!"

"I don't know if… You have any real good news." I said, not wanting him to continue. There was only so much I could resist.

"What in the world could you be going on about? How is you turning up ALIVE not good news?" Core placed one of his metallic claws on my back softly, as to not irritate any of my wounds. "You coming back to the Nest will help a lot more than you think, I'd call that some pretty damn good news." Core starting laughing again.

I had to look down and grit my teeth. I didn't let him see my expression though. I felt more emotionally conflicted than I had in a very long time, and this conversation had been barely over a minute. I needed to get through this quickly.

"I'm not-" I took a breath. "I'm not planning on coming back." I managed to get out.

Silence washed over the two of us, Core's laughing stopped right as those words left my mouth. I hated the idea that the first time I'm talking to Core in weeks has to have such a sour note, but there's no way for me to say this in a positive manner.

"Look up at me, Kuro." Core said, taking his claw off of my back. I did as commanded, and looked up at him. My expression wasn't showing anything, my face was blank. Or s I thought anyway.

"Tell me where this line of thought is coming from." He said, looking down at me with a stern face. It's been ages since I saw Core, and even longer since I saw him with a serious expression, rather than one of comfort. "I can tell just by looking at you that your head is muddled beyond belief."

I kept eye contact with Core, it didn't look like either one of us had any desire to break it. "I don't deserve to be there." I started. My leg began trembling. I've never said any of this out loud, only thought it in my head. I didn't realize how much harder it was to speak it as opposed to think about it. "It seems like I'm some sort of… target. Staying at the Nest will just draw more hostility there." I gulped, but made sure it wasn't noticeable. "The mission Vero and I were out on before I was taken could have ended much worse than it actually did. The only reason we were in that much danger in the first place was because they were after me. Vero could have died, as could anyone else in that area. All because…" I closed my eyes and shook my head. It didn't prevent me from hearing Core sigh.

"You're a Raven, Kuro. We're all targets of the Void. That's not exclusive to you, all of us are like that." I looked down, finally breaking eye contact.

"This is different. They need something from me, and until I provide it, they'll get more and more forceful with what they do. They might start… putting more pressure on other Ravens because I won't give it to them." _I can't just rest in the Nest, especially with Aven and Kai there. It's not practical…_

"What do they need of you? Better yet, why wouldn't they just kill you and take it if it was that important to them?" Core then asked.

"It's information. As far as I know, I'm the only one who could provide some sort of answer. It involves something my… dad owned. A gift that was given to him." I took another breath and looked back up at Core. "His-"

"Necklace." He interrupted. "It was made with something that they could use to make enhancements to pokemon in their control, or used to make compounds that'll harm others. I'm well aware." _I forgot that he was close to them._ "Well, it's not like they would know, but you're not the only one blessed with that information."

"I take it you do too?" I asked, receiving a nod.

"And do you see me abandoning my post because there's a possibility they'll send more forces to us?"

I averted my eyes again. He worded what he said a specific way on purpose.

"They don't know that you have that information though."

"Are you forgetting that I'm at the highest end of the Nest? I'd say I'm an even more valuable target than you to them, and yet, here I am." _Even so…_

"That's not the only reason I can't come back." I said, before pausing, It seemed like Core was waiting for me to continue. "I shouldn't be there… I'm dangerous, and I don't deserve it. I don't deserve the luxuries that the Nest gives me."

"Dangerous?" Core questioned.

"I… A little while ago, I lost control of myself." I placed my left forepaw over the other, as to calm my trembling as best I could. "I-I let someone die. I couldn't save them, and I just… I lost it. I lost my mind and attacked the ones that killed him… and killed them too. Both of them." I felt a lump in my throat as soon as I said that. I tried my best to blank the flashbacks.

Another space of awkward silence took place. "I didn't think you had it in you." Core said, standing up straight. "Why though, is that something to hold you back from coming back to the Nest? That doesn't make much sense." _How can it not make sense..?_

I collected my thoughts. "What do you mean? I… I just killed two pokemon in cold blood. How can I be fit to be a Raven..?"

"I doubt you just went out, got angry, and killed a few pokemon because of it. You're leaving out details. You said you 'let' someone die. Elaborate." I took a few moments to collect myself. I still haven't looked back on what happened back there much. I wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

"I-I ended up in this icy cavern I've never been to before. I don't know how I got there, but there's a group of pokemon living in it. They told me they were nomads." I went on to explain some of the pokemon I met there, namely Tsu, and Jewel. After that, I finally talked a little bit about Ethos. I told him how two members of the Void showed up, and that I had recognized both of them. I went into all of the events that led up to me losing my mind, including Ethos getting killed in the crossfire of the conflict. If I thought it was hard for me to keep up my stoic demeanor before, now it was nearly impossible.

Core listened to me without interruption, he let me go on and on until I had finally gone through all of the motions.

"You're not making any sense." He shook his head. "You killed two Void members, two that would likely go on to harm more than just you and the nomads living in the area you found yourself in. Not only that, but you did it in response to them murdering a young, innocent pokemon."

"That doesn't matter!" I took a few steps back, raising my voice. "I shouldn't have done that… I knew that at the time, and I still did it. I knew what I was doing was wrong, and I still didn't hold back. I can't be around others…"

"Do you honestly think that I've never killed anyone? Or better yet, that your parents haven't killed anyone?"

I froze for just a second, slowly turning my head up to Core. I had never really thought about that, whatever my parents did at the Nest while they were Ravens.

"You didn't see your parents as uncontrollable killers, did you? By your logic, the two of them were murderous fiends who should have stayed far away from the Nest. By your logic, I shouldn't be second in command in the Nest, I should banish myself." Core put one of his claws against his head, looking a bit disappointed. "Do you see what I mean? You haven't done anything-"

"That's not true." I interrupted. "I don't deserve to be around everyone I've met at the Nest. I don't trust myself… I can't be close to them if I do things like this…"

"You seriously don't get what you're saying." Core leaned back down to me, and grabbed my head with his claw, forcing me to stare at him. "So you're just going to leave your friends behind? You've been on missions with them, you've bonded with them, hell, you're practically raising one of them. And you're just going to leave? You're going to abandon them? You're going to abandon your partner?"

"They're better off without me." I said, turning away from Core. "I shouldn't be around any of them…" I began walking away. I couldn't stay here any longer. I'd start to break down.

"I never thought I would hear you say something so stupid…" Core said, sounding irritated. I ignored him, and kept walking forward. I made it to the top of the staircase that led me up here, ready to leave. If I looked back, I'd be too tempted to stop, so I had to keep moving.

Before I could walk down even one step, a powerful force connected with the back of my head. My vision blacked out for a second, and was then overloaded with the bright colors of this building. I flipped my position in the air, and my back slammed against one of the pillars connecting the first floor to the second, and the wind was knocked out of me. I slowly slumped to the ground, an ache coursing through my whole body. I fell on my side once I hit the floor, stunned.

Each of Core's footsteps seemed to echo as he trudged down towards me, step by step. I caught a glimpse of his face, but couldn't place an expression. He looked torn, his face was somewhere between upset and angry. No doubt, both of those feelings were directed towards me. Hence him smacking me in the back of my head hard enough to nearly make me lose consciousness on the spot.

As soon as he was standing above me, Core reached down and picked me up by my neck, squeezing more intensely than I was ready for. I dryly coughed, feeling my air supply slowly tighten.

"You know, as naive as you might have been when I first met you, I thought you could change. I thought that being around others who could understand you for long enough would change your ridiculous mindset." His grip around my neck tightened more. I started waving my hind legs involuntarily. "It's almost like you're actively trying to prove me wrong."

I squirmed around within Core's grip, but it was too much for me to break free from, or even come close at that. I placed my forepaws on his arms and tried to pry him off of me, but it didn't help in the slightest. I was stuck. I couldn't move one bit.

"How is it that; you can spend all the time in the world with the pokemon you met within the Nest, and not notice? How can't you notice just how important you are to them? To everyone you've met there?" _Because I'm not important. If all I bring about is danger, then I'm far from importance._ I wish I could say that out loud, but I couldn't. Even if Core's claw wasn't tightened around my neck, I don't think I could.

"Your life has value. I get that something in your head is preventing you from seeing that, but it does. If your life didn't mean anything to anyone, why would I even go through the trouble of saying this to you? Why would we keep your space in the Nest free instead of replace you without asking questions? Why would your mentor specifically ask me if we could go out and try to find you?" _What..?_

"And of course, why in the hell would Naru be having a mental breakdown every second you're gone?" That last question made some of my struggling slow down. I've been trying to keep that out of my head, how she's been all this time. That's the one thing I always did my very best to avoid. Thinking about it never helped me, only made me into a guilt-ridden mess.

"Did you assume that spending time with others, living and talking with them, going out on tasks together, everything you've done with one another, is just a memory that means nothing to them? Do you think that others can't be attached to you?" Core let out an annoyed sigh. His claw loosened the slightest bit around my neck, hardly enough for me to notice though. "Anyone that you've had an impact on cares for you. Some of them care for you a lot more than you likely think. If you vanish and don't come back, if you leave them, they won't take it straight faced. Especially the ones you've lived with during your time at the Nest. Whether you like to admit it or not, by willingly not coming back, you'll be hurting them. Maybe even worse than that."

I stopped resisting Core's grip. He took every single doubt I've had for the longest time, and shoved them right in my face. I pushed down every reason I might have had to go back to the Nest instead of leaving for good. Yet, Core reminded me of all of them. I never, under any circumstance, wanted to leave everyone. I used those reasons as a buffer to force myself to do it, so nobody else would get hurt. But, my presence wouldn't really have any bearing on that, would it? The Void still exists, and whether they want to capture me for information or not, that wouldn't change their rivalry with the Nest. That wouldn't change the ongoing war between the two, or the amount of pokemon that get captured and killed because of the conflict. I didn't realize how powerful an emotion fear could be. I had no clue it would ever cause me to go as far as I was about to.

Core released the pressure around my neck, and I dropped to the ground, landing on my side. I coughed and brought a paw to my throat, taking in as much air as I could. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a mark under my fur where Core was just holding me by. I wasn't expecting him to do something like that, or strike the back of my head for that matter. He had a point to make though, and he certainty showed me what that was. _Even so, I have a hard time fully agreeing with it._

"You know, I don't have control over you. But that doesn't mean I can't try my best to convince you that whatever you're planning is wrong. I don't even need details. I probably don't want to hear them on second thought." Core took a step back as I took a second to collect myself. I pushed off of the ground, standing on shaky legs. My head and the part of my back that connected with the pillar in here weren't feeling too great.

"W-What if you're wrong though? And I just bring more harm to the Nest, without being able to help them?" I asked, my voice a little scratchy.

"Don't worry about that. Did you not feel me hit you? I don't think the Ravens are who you should be concerned for." Core gave a cocky chuckle. It was forced, but there was truth behind his words. "I'm not the only one there either. Our two groups have been at each other's throats for quite a while now, they know what I'm capable of, as well as the other higher ups at the Nest. Just so you know, if they thought they could just walk in and kill us all, they would have done it ages ago. They haven't though, because they know it would be a suicidal move."

"And if circumstances change..?" I asked, turning my head to look up at Core.

"They won't. The Void can't just come after us with brute force. Especially not with the confidence they would need to win a head to head fight with us." _That's unconvincing…_ "You know, you're a pretty exceptional asset to us, especially for someone who started as recently as you did. You did just survive wherever the Void took you, how many pokemon do you think can say the same? If anything, you being gone would make it even easier for the Void to cause problems. I'd say you can become a great threat to them."

"You're overexxagerating." I looked back down to the ground. "I don't even know how I got out. I couldn't do it again willingly."

"You still did it though. Just because you can't repeat those actions right now doesn't mean you'll never be able to."

I didn't reply to Core immediately. I was still unsure of myself. I had no clue what the right decision was.

"Let me make a proposition for you." Core took a breath. "I'll take you back to the Nest, but at your request, I'll resolve you of your position at any time, and send you on your way. I want you to try, if anything at all."

"If I accept that offer, I'll likely just leave as soon as I get there you know." _It would be an easy way out, I wouldn't have to argue with Core and I still get to separate myself._

"Be careful, I know I don't have you hooked yet. However, if you listen to me and try coming back at the very least, I guarantee you won't want to leave anymore."

"That doesn't sound practical." I spent such a long time convincing myself that leaving and never willingly coming back is the right choice to make. My mentality changing on a dime like that; _There's no way._

"Maybe not, who knows?" Core shrugged. "But I wouldn't forgive myself if I just watched you walk away here. I don't think Storm or Blade would forgive me either." He muttered that last part, I only barely caught it. I wish I hadn't though.

"What do they have to do with any of this at all?" I asked, my voice quivering. I was trying really hard to resist asking, but I couldn't help it.

"They don't have anything directly to do with this. But when the kid of two of the best friends you had is about to make a stupid choice: It would be an insult to them for me to ignore it." He gave an awkward chuckle. "It wouldn't be the first time they got mad at me for something, but I feel like this would be a lot worse."

"They've been mad at you..? I can't imagine either of them raising their voices."

"You can't? Let me tell you, I certainly can." Core laughed to himself. "Especially Storm. Yelling didn't match her demeanor, but that just made it all the more terrifying when she lost her cool. The only solace is that she never got physical with her anger. I very well could have a few broken limbs if she had." For some reason, thinking about my mom yelling amused me. Maybe because of how foreign it seemed. She never yelled at me, not once. "Granted, she probably had a lot more of a probable cause to yell at Blade than me, yet he got off scott free. She was way too merciful to him."

"What reason would she have to get mad at him?" Again, I never saw them irritated with one another, not a single time.

"You dad was a massive klutz. He also had a very hard time doing simple tasks, and excelled in all of the complex ones. He was extremely bright, even if he used a lot of his attentive attitude for exploring myths. Most of the tasks he screwed up were simple and easy, and usually made it so Storm had to cover for him. Without her, I'm not sure how Blade would even set a schedule for himself." Core let out another chuckle.

"I kind of knew that bit already." I thought back to when I was recently near my old home. Fixing up old traps that my dad didn't set properly was honestly a great thing to distract myself, maybe that's just another reason to thank him in the end. Even though he's been gone for so long.

"He probably couldn't hide that part of himself around you, as much as he wanted to. You mom cleaned up after a lot his messes though, they made a great pair." Core's tone shifted back to what it was when we first started talking. Gentle. "You and Naru are almost reflections of them sometimes, I swear. It's funny to see how much you took from your parents, both of them." _I can't draw any parallels…_

I didn't immediately respond to Core. I was suddenly wrapped up in thinking about my parents now. I always liked hearing more about them, no matter what it might have been. I wish I was able to listen to a narration of their lives, all the way up until the end. Sadly, the only ones who could provide that are the two in question.

"I know this is off topic, but what exactly happened to your left eye?" Core curiously asked, breaking me out of my small trance.

"Long story short, I can't see out of it anymore. Thank the Void for that."

"I see. Well, how about you tell me about all of the possible injuries they gave you on the way back to the Nest? I can prepare treatment for you when you actually get there, also arrange an examination, just to make sure you're in the clear." _On the way back…_

"I'll tell you whatever I remember. Although I don't even know the exact amount of time I was there."

"Any intel is better than none, whatever keeps your body from breaking. Or getting infected, your wounds haven't been properly treated, even though they don't look like they're buggin you much." I nodded.

"I didn't really have the time to treat them." _Does that mean Tsu didn't treat them properly?_

"Well, we can take care of that!" Core turned around, looking up the staircase he had tossed me down not too long ago. "Shall we head on our way?"

I silently nodded once more, though a bit hesitant. I suppose that was my way of saying yes to Core's offer. He began walking up the stairs, and I followed.

"So, let's start with the obvious question. What caused your half-blindness?"

I prepared myself to answer all of Cores questions. That was the newest thing to distract me from my fear.

* * *

Hello Readers!

So I'm typing this in the dining hall, and it's SO COLD IN HERE I SWEAR-

Numb hands won't cause more typos, right? Probably will.

Anyways though, I hope you enjoy the chapter! I actually got this one out in a decent time frame, and seeing as I have an actual schedule for working and classes now, I can find more time to type this and not have panic attacks over the Resident Evil 2 remake! :D (Though I seriously recommend it, it's great, even if parts are disturbing and terrifying)

Look forward to future updates, hopefully a bit quicker too!

See You Next Chapter!


	54. Relax

**Grace**

"Are you done yet?"

I hated dealing with the annoying… whatever you would call these. The 'things' that Lu- the boss makes. The things she tries to break every last bit of constitution of before taking control of them. Those things. I don't like em. I'm always tasked with showing them that they have no chance of escape, even the ones that aren't totally taken over yet. LIke this damned mawile that I swear I've stabbed more times than my own food throughout my life.

I never got an answer to my question, just some really heavy breathing. Groans of pain were released from him, alongside the noises of his body re-forming itself. He had to be getting close to his limit though, his mental limit. I hope so anyway. I'm tired of stabbing and further mutilating the same pokemon over and over. I like some variety in my impalement of other pokemon.

I looked at the unconventionally colored, collapsed mawile just in time to see him push himself off of the ground. I let out an annoyed sigh, extending a vine from my back. "This is getting old, pal."

"T-Then just stop…" He barely said, before coughing up a storm. I imagined that it must have been quite painful to constantly lose flesh and reinstate it.

"No can do. If I disobey orders, I have to deal with monotonous chores, and I'd rather spend my time stabbing pokemon in various ways. Believe me, if I had the option to stop messing with you, I would take it in a heartbeat." I explained, thinking about the victims I had lined up to 'investigate' the insides of.

"Why are you all such monsters..?" He asked, his voice hardening. He seemed to be recovering from his wounds faster than usual.

"Uh… I dunno." I shrugged. "I can't remember how I became like this, I was probably born this way. I would think it's the same for everyone else here. Well, everyone besides the ones we have captive here. They're normal."

"Why do you even do all of this? What's the meaning behind it..?" _Geez, at least try to hide your desperation._

"If I was trusted with that information, I would have already leaked it to at least seventeen unwanted pokemon. My boss keeps whatever her ideals are in her head. Which is fine by me!" I smiled at him, wanting to creep him out.

"You're okay with blindly following orders of which you don't know the purpose of?"

"If I like doing what I do, why does it matter? I think I've been up to this as long as I can remember, so clearly I have to enjoy it." I tapped one of my paws on the ground. "Honestly I never really cared too much about what exactly she wants with this or that I don't think. I just go with the flow!"

"Are you really okay with being this uncertain?" _Someone's overly chatty today._

"I have no clue what you mean. I think I know what I'm doing here. And even if I don't, who cares? I'm pretty sure I'm happy with my life's position."

"Nothing you say is certain." I tilted my head, confused. "You preface almost everything with 'I think' or something similar."

"I do?" I questioned. "Wait, crap, I wasn't supposed to answer that with a question." I cleared my throat. "Doesn't matter, I th- I'm happy with my current life's standing."

"You mind seems like it's been tampered with."

"Pfft, my head is mine and mine alone. All of my choices come from me!" I walked closer to him, leaning my head down. "You're the one who can't make his own choices right now."

"I refuse to fully give into this…" He growled at me. I replied with a giggle.

"You've already been sent out and even played a great role in gathering information about our enemies! I'd say your choices are rather limited."

"According to what I've heard while being here, I'm not even supposed to have a conscious mind. The fact that I still do tells me I still have some sort of control."

"I will admit, you're taking a while to give." I admitted with an over dramatic sigh. "Then again though, nothing lasts forever."

My vine was already jammed through his chest before he had the chance to open his mouth for anything other than a yelp in pain. I stuck it clean through his chest, in the front and out the back. Some of that weird, orange stuff got onto it though, I'll probably have to clean that later.

"You're being a bit too vocal for my liking. How about you stay quiet and break?"

"T-The only reason you're defensive is because you know there's truth in what I've told you here." He said through gritted teeth.

"You can think what you want." I sighed. "I'm not defensive, I'm losing my patience with a mawile that won't shut his damn trap." An uncomfortable feeling creeped up inside of me. Something I wasn't used to. It was like a weird tingle rose up through my back and went out my mouth, resulting in a hiccup. It felt almost as if I shivered, but my body didn't tremble. Like, the feeling of shivering passed through me, but I didn't actually shiver. "Whoa…" I shook my head.

The mawile unexpectedly brought one of his hands up, grabbing the vine that was impaling him. He looked like he was using it for balance of all things.

"Y-You're going to look back on all of the choices you've made eventually. Once you do, Y-You're going to regret every last one. E-Every. Last. O-One." He stuttered out, breathing heavily.

I took slow steps towards him, my vine curving upwards as I closed the distance. I leaned my head within an inch from his. "You. Are. Wrong." I said sternly, before lifting my head up again with a smile. "See? I can talk with emphasis too! And what does it accomplish? Nothingggggg!"

The mawile scoffed through my giggling. I had finally won this verbal battle. Satisfied, I ripped my vine out of him, getting another joyous scream in agony. I didn't get the same rush as I did a few minutes ago though. It was strange. I felt like there was something stuck in my throat. After that, as if there was a boulder sitting on my chest.

Instead of acknowledging the enemy, I gulped it down and kept on laughing.

* * *

 **Kuro**

The grass surrounding my paws, the empowering moonlight and the chilly air still felt so foreign. Even after I got away from the Void somehow, I never re-adapted to being in an open space. I didn't have the time to take a breath and take in whatever my surrounding area held. I was too occupied with figuring out where I was, and where I could go. Despite my light shivering from the sharp cold in the air, I didn't feel discouraged from waiting outside for so long. I wasn't absolutely required to wait, but preparing my mind to see familiar faces would need time. I should have been nothing less than excited, I should hardly be able to sit still. Yet, I was nervous, dare I say fearful.

Being so uncertain of myself, not knowing what I should be feeling and comparing it to what I'm actually feeling was just… scary. I didn't like it. I hated second guessing myself, but I couldn't get the notion that I was making all of the wrong choices out of my head. I still think I should have just run away from Core instead of trying to talk to him first. Then he wouldn't have been able to grasp me into this.

I looked down at my paws, resting in the greenery below me. The tips of each blade had a white tint. I knew it was cold, but perhaps more than I thought initially. I had been here all day. Core and I came here via the same method I arrived the first time, although this time I was dropped off in a different spot. Roughly a mile away from me is the Nest. At any moment, I could walk over there, I could go back to the Nest. Arceus, it was so tempting, but at the same time, I was extremely hesitant. Every little doubt I had before was still in my head. I had pushed them back, but they remained alive in my brain.

All four of my legs periodically began shaking, and then stopped over the time I've been pacing. It felt like I was going in mental circles, having a hard time being decisive. I couldn't just walk to the Nest, and at the same time, I couldn't get myself to turn and sprint away. Just a week ago, I wanted nothing more than to reunite with everyone I met within my time at the Nest. Now, to think that I'd go back on that desire and leave when I'm so close, It's ridiculous. Even so, as crazy as it was, I couldn't deny t as a part of me. _Why can't I just… decide? Why do I need to go back and forth on what should be an easy choice?_ I sighed to myself, then grit my teeth.

 _Why am I so angry..? And at whom..?_

I shook my head and dunked my head against the ground. An uncomfortable sensation circulated through my body. I didn't feel like myself. I felt as if I was letting my thoughts get lost in an endless abyss of negative possibilities, without even taking a single moment to think about how great it would be if everything worked out, no matter my choice. I assumed the worst of both sides. There wasn't a good outcome, period. That's what I continuously told myself. _Is the really the case though..? Or am I just… just…_

"Screw this…" I growled, rubbing my head in the dirt. "Why can't I just make the choice? Why can't I just… not be so incompetent..?"

The sound of ruffling grass entered my ears, and my head shot up instantly. My initial reaction was hostile, but the second my eyes traced the slim figure standing a few meters away, that hostility became clouded. It only took a moment to recall who the black and red furred pokemon standing before me was.

I felt her eyes trace the entirety of my body, before any words were even said. I wanted to verbalize my thoughts, but I couldn't think of anything to say. Well, that's not quite accurate. I had more things to say that I could count, I just couldn't get myself to actually open my mouth and speak. I didn't know what to feel, not with the indecipherable cluster of thoughts I had. Through the dark forest in my head though, I had to suppress my urge to accept the relief that a face I recognized brought upon me.

"Wow…" She said, in a quiet voice. "You look terrible." She followed, no longer soft. I wasn't sure how to reply to that. Needless to say, it wasn't what I was expecting.

"I'm… aware." I replied, letting out a light sigh. "I wasn't aware that anyone knew I was here though…"

"Yeah well, not many do. I can count two, including me." Vero took a step closer to me, seemingly disturbed by my snow-colored eye.

"Are you allowed to tell me who the other is?" I asked, trying to ignore the obvious attention.

"Kage." She simply said. "He, however, decided that he wanted you to come to us, making sure you were ready and all that." _Ready..?_

"How much did Core tell you..?" I questioned, now feeling a tiny bit of concern.

"Enough-" Vero inhaled. "Enough for me to do this."

Vero slowly walked even closer to me, until only an inch or two separated us. I looked up at her, watching her throw her right arm back. She quickly adjusted the angle of her body and unleashed a powerful slap across the side of my face.

A stinging sensation spread across my cheek, lingering on the surface of my skin.

"I was going to call you certain words too, but decided that might be a bit overkill." Vero said, stepping back to her original position. "I knew that you're kind of dense when it comes to other pokemon, but seriously? How in the world could you consider sticking with those… darker thoughts?"

I paused. I wasn't sure if that was a loaded question, or she actually wanted me to explain myself. My confusion caused me to remain quiet.

"For the record, I don't think you're stupid. But the smartest pokemon can still make hasty and dumb decisions." Vero put one of her claws to her head and sighed. "I don't think you… You don't realize what your life means, do you?"

"I don't understand where you're going with this." I replied, trying to make eye contact.

"Alright then; Say you just up and left instead of letting Core convince you to come here. In fact, go a step farther. Say you didn't talk to Core at all, and you just never came close to him. When was the last time you were seen by someone from the Nest? Before now that is." I took a second to collect my thoughts. This sounded much less rhetorical.

"You were the last to see me." I said. "When I was taken away by the Void's head scientist."

"Correct." Vero halted her speech for a second. "Take a shot at this. Flip our roles. Say I was the one taken, and you were the one immobile, watching it all. After that event takes place, where do you think I'd be?"

I reasoned with myself. It was a simple question to answer, but my cloudy head made any question take me a second to de-construct. "In the possession of the Void."

"Correct again. Now a day passes, and there's no sign of me. Two, three, a week, and nothing. You tell me: What would you think happened?" _Ignoring what happened to me, what would I think..?_

"I…" A little bit of hesitation was present in my voice. I didn't think of just one possibility, a few jumped into my head. More than a few, a lot popped up. Many things can happen in a week. "I don't know." I answered.

"Exactly." Another space of silence passed. "Do you really think there's anything worse for someone you care about? Is there anything worse than not knowing what's happening with them? Not knowing for sure where they could be, if they're safe, if they're even alive? What's worse than that?"

I, once more, switched out myself and Vero in this hypothetical situation. If I was at the Nest, and Vero, or anyone I know for that matter was taken away, and I had no clue where they were, or even if they were still breathing, what really would be worse? Even if I… If I knew they were dead, would that really be worse than not knowing where they are? If my parents left our home and were attacked, how would I react compared to watching them have their lives taken?

"The imagination is a powerful tool. Something that can enrich you, and probably kill you inside too." Vero followed. "Sometimes, you can even trick yourself into believing something that's unlikely, or even impossible. But when your rational side comes out, you'll be back to limbo." I followed everything Vero said. I began understanding where this was all going. "I mean, it's hard-"

"I don't think this is accurate." I interrupted. "Rationally, as you put it, the members of the Void would have killed me on the spot if they desired it. The fact they didn't do that should have been enough to know that I was still alive."

"Yeah? And then what?" Vero scoffed.

"What do you mean..?" I asked.

"So what if we could reasonably assume you were alive? At the same time as knowing you could still be kicking, we also knew you were in possession of the Void. You were stuck in the Void. The. Void." She looked as if she clenched her teeth. "Since when have they acted rational!? Since when have they done anything besides bring pain and misery!? Arceus, knowing that you're there and still alive doesn't matter if we don't know what the hell they're doing to you…" Vero sounded emotional all of a sudden. It caught me off guard.

"They didn't do anything I couldn't force myself to handle." I told her, wanting to at least try and falsely reassure her that my time there was bearable, no matter how awful.

"Bullshit." She said sternly. "How can you say that while only looking at me with one freaking eye? I have no reason to believe anything other than that you went through utter hell in there."

"That's your assumption. You haven't heard-"

"Yeah, I don't know exactly what you went through in there. But you know what I do know? You look like you just came off the verge of death. Before you were with the Void, you looked pretty normal. After, you look like you got mauled five times over." Vero shook her head. "You're going to try and convince me that you're just fine after that? The fact that we're having this conversation right now shows that's not the case."

I wasn't sure how to reply to her. I could try to keep dancing around it, but I didn't think that would last very long. I couldn't outright… deny anything she said. There wasn't a point in trying to pretend like nothing happened. I would just dig myself deeper and deeper.

"Why does this matter?" I questioned. "This is off topic from what you were talking about before."

"My point is that we had no idea where you were. We didn't know what was happening to you. Much to our fears, it looks like some of our theories weren't so far off. If you just left and never came back… What do you think we would have thought? That you were dead? Well, what would confirm that? We likely wouldn't ever see your corpse. We'd just live day by day, thinking about all of the awful situations you could be in. Just like we have been for the time you've been gone." Vero looked down with a sombre face. "How could you ever considering putting us all through that again?" _Again with this..?_

"I didn't mean for anyone to be stuck with that in their heads…" I mumbled. "It's safer that I'm not here, that I'm on my own instead of with the Nest."

"Safer?" Vero locked eyes with me. "You must really be out of your damn mind."

"If I'm a target that needs to be ali-"

"Shut up." I was interrupted again. "Don't give me that crap. Don't tell me that you being gone would be better for everyone. Losing an ally doesn't make us safer. It makes us less stable and in more danger than we could be in any other situation."

"That's not true…" I responded. "You-"

"You don't get it." Vero stomped towards me. I felt admittedly intimidated. "You think we can focus on our work, or any kind of confrontation with this hanging over our heads? You think we're any less vulnerable than you? Remember the mission we went on before this all happened? You really think that would have played out the same way had only one of us been there, and the Void attacked? A psycho mawile and a delphox that can literally freeze us in place, even though we should be immune to those kinds of attacks, had only one of us been there, I can tell you Kuro, it would have been much messier."

"No, it wouldn't have." I took a breath. "They were only there for me in the first place. It would have been fine if I hadn't been there."

"Oh yeah? And can you confirm that?

"I can't. But they wouldn't have threatened everyone if I wasn't-"

"You're right. They would have killed them. They would have straight up murdered them instead of using them to lure you in." Vero retorted. _Killed them..?_

"It's more than possible that they never would have approached that place if I wasn't-"

"Not immediately? Maybe. But not ever? That's wishful thinking. They could have easily come back and killed them all." Vero took another step forward, angrily. "You saw what they tried to do to that pokemon I guarded with an illusion, right? She could have done the same with everyone in one motion. We're lucky that it was just one pokemon and not more!"

"And what if that one pokemon was you!?" I shouted back at Vero. She seemed surprised by my outburst. She took a step back from me, her expression changing.

"I… If you, or anyone else at the Nest lost your life because of getting caught in a crossfire while I'm being hunted…" I shook my head in a rough motion. "I can't even think about it…"

A long pause passed between the two of us. I couldn't think of how else to show her why I would consider some… drastic options.

"Just say you're afraid." Vero said with a sigh. "You're afraid of loss, and further, you being the cause of that loss." I looked to the ground, one of my legs began shaking a little bit. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't ashamed to admit my fears or anything, but there wasn't a point in explaining something Vero already clearly knows about.

"What will you do about your fears?" She asked, now sounding much more calm. _What..?_

"Are you going to sit there and be terrified, alongside letting that control your choices? Or are you going to do something about your fears, and learn how to live with them?" She continued, looking down a little bit. "Believe me, I get it… But you can't make stupid choices just because of how scared you are. If you do, then… Well, nobody will be happy."

Vero slowly turned away and took a few steps forward. I pondered on her words, every last one of them. I looked at what we agreed on, and what we disagreed on. Whether reflecting would influence my blurry thought patterns, I wasn't sure of yet.

"I'm glad that you're okay." Vero muttered, before walking off into the grassy fields.

"I'm happy to see you too." I said aloud, though with no chance of Vero actually hearing me. I slumped to the ground, laying on my side. I took in a sharp inhale, and then exhaled. _What should I do..?_

I had a new desire to think things through more so than I had already. I really needed to look at this from every perspective and not just the easiest ways out. I closed my eyes and mostly cleared my mind. I let the pulsing moonlight relax me, and tried my best to relax before putting myself through any more mental hoops. _I need to release a lot of tension before I think about this any more…_

My eyes remained shut for a long while. Time passed, though I wasn't sure how much. I assumed that, when I first arrived here, it was evening. The sky was dark and the moon was out, so either really early morning or evening made sense. The Vero came from the Nest to talk to me, her being awake made it more likely that it was still late rather than early. With how long it feels as if I've been laying down though, perhaps it would be morning soon. I didn't fall asleep, so I was able to vaguely keep track of the transition to the next day.

It didn't take much longer before I heard the sound of something approaching me yet again. It was different than last time, enough for me to determine that it wasn't Vero. I lazily lifted my head up, bringing my eye to a figure I wasn't familiar with. Not at first anyway. The shape was much larger than I was. I recognized it as a haxorus, one that I swear I had seen before, but I didn't know them by name. _Maybe I noticed them in passing once..?_

I stood up on all fours, not giving them what I would call a death stare, but I didn't look friendly. I wasn't in a good mood, and thus, if this pokemon happened to be hostile, I wanted them to leave as soon as possible. The last pokemon I actually, well sort of battled with was Jewel, unless you count getting smacked around by Core as battling. The look on the face of this haxorus was almost disturbing, like someone who had lost their mind, or at least, someone on the verge of such. I took a hesitant step back, not wanting to seem intimidated, but not wanting to drop my guard at the same time.

"Mmrgh…" There was a mumble from the haxorus. A very uneasy mumble. They didn't speak with any decipherable words, but didn't sound too happy. "You found one of them…" They then spoke, bewildering me. I had never interacted with this pokemon before, and by the way they spoke, it sounded as if they knew something about me. "Now I need to take it back." They unleashed a small growl. I was beyond confused.

"Who are you..?" I sheepishly asked, not wanting conflict.

Instead of a reply, the haxorus ran at me, and attempted to slam one of their arms over my head, which I barely rolled away from. I steadied myself as I finished the motion, looking up at the now aggressor. They turned to me from their missed attempt at an attack, and growled once more. "I'm taking what you have now!"

I was rushed down once more. He was unsteady and unfocused. I strafed to the right and ran passed him, dodging another swing. He turned around to presumably charge at me again. Predicting this, I jumped up and rammed my head into his, before spinning around in the air and hitting him with my tail. He reeled back a few inches, and I faced him once more. He rubbed the side of his head, glaring at me. His body slumped, and he looked as if he was about to collapse. I hardly touched him, and he seemed as if he was on his last leg. The smart move in a battle would be to rush him now, but I was still totally blank as to why I was being attacked in the first place. I didn't know if this was some sort of misunderstanding, or if this was a random pokemon out for blood. _Like I needed more confusion…_

"Please stop this…" I said, as the haxorus' body lowered, seemingly from being exhausted. "Who are you and why-"

Out of nowhere, another figure launched itself into my sightline. The time of day made it difficult to make out what kind of pokemon it was due to the speed they moved at, but I was able to tell the direction they were headed in. The shape slammed into the haxorus, and in response, he let out an ear-splitting scream. He was shoved away from the force, falling to the ground. The shape held still, facing the haxorus. Without it moving a muscle, the haxorus let out another hoarse yell, and flew back a few more feet, sliding against the ground.

I stared at the shape, slowly deciphering its species. I suddenly didn't care about the haxorus that was just showing mass amounts of aggression towards me. I froze in my tracks, tracing the slim tendrils that connected to a small shape on its head, looking like a crystal. I traced its four legs, its physique, barely larger than my own. I traced its colors, a combination of light and dark blue. A glaceon.

Said glaceon released an aggressive growl, and stomped towards the haxorus, who was barely recovering off of the ground. I heard a sharp inhale, only barely.

"Go. Away." She spoke, low and threatening. The haxorus seemed to hesitate on leaving right after he rose to his feet. "Leave before I shove an icicle in your neck!" She shouted. I could still hardly make it out, everything sounded so distant all of a sudden, ever since she came into my sight. Her voice was aggressive, mean-spirited, and threatening. I still found it angelic at the same time.

The haxorus turned tail and ran right after she shouted, running in the opposite direction of the Nest. I was attacked out of nowhere, by someone who looked exhausted, totally drained. They wouldn't respond to anything I said, instead spouting random rhetoric that I didn't understand. I didn't care though. I did a few moments prior, but not right at this very moment. I was still stuck in place, my one working eye unmoving as my legs.

She turned in my direction, and looked me in the eye. I did the same to her. Every conflicting thought in my head faded instantly, I was now only focused on one thing, one pokemon. Neither of us said a word. A million rushed through my mind, but none of them made it to my mouth. I felt as if time had stopped around me, as if I was still stuck.

She took a few steps closer to me. As much as I wanted to do the same, I still couldn't move, nor speak, nor really think. I watched her expression slowly go back and forth as she seemed to observe my features, from the new details on my face to the new marks down the rest of my body. She continued walking forward, until we were molecules apart. I had to tilt my head up ever so slightly to keep eye contact.

We stood right in front of one another for a solid minute of silence. The air didn't feel dense or tentious though, like the rest of the silence I've experienced today. She leaned down a little bit, touching her forehead to mine. Her crown felt smooth and comforting. I felt my body quiver a little bit, my legs getting the worst of it. A pressure akin to a boulder sitting on me settled in my chest, looming over to my throat. I heavily gulped and my legs gave out. I slumped down and she followed.

A gentle pressure pressed against the back of my head, forcing me forward into a comfortable, soft sensation. I had felt this before, this same exact texture, from a similar position. The paw behind my head slowly moved up and down, gliding across my fur. I felt a warm, moist feeling form on both of my cheeks, coming from my eyes. I was pushed more firmly into the soft pillow in front of me, and heard something.

"Shhhh."

The sound was kind and gentle. I don't know why, but that weakened my fortitude, nearly shattering it. I wasn't aware such a simple noise could have that effect. I started letting out audible sobs. It wasn't in my control anymore. I brought my forelegs forward, and despite them shaking more than ever, I wrapped them around the body in front of me. I dug my head as firmly into her fur as I could.

I focused on the comforting touch on my head. I focused on the gentle noises now resting in my ears.

For the first time in what felt like ages:

I felt relaxed.

* * *

Hello Readers!

Typing a chapter with one hand? Never thought I would do that, but here I am. Had a bit of a silly accident with a sharp object, and let's just say my left hand isn't too easy to use at the moment, thanks to a nasty cut almost to the bone. Be careful with sharp things kids.

This took a while to get out for many reasons besides the one above, but I'd rather not go into those. Point is, there's a new chapter out, and one I hope people will enjoy.

I thought the chapter before this came out horribly, but I got some of the best feedback overall on that one than I have on any other in like… a long time. So I guess you guys liked it? Not that I'm complaining, I greatly appreciate it, but hell if that doesn't show that I need to just be at least a little bit confident in some of what I put down here. I owe it to all of you for being so patient with my inconsistent uploading.

Thank you all for reviewing, PMing, all of it. Every bit of interaction I have with you guys seriously makes me a happier person, and I love every bit of it.

See You Next Chapter!


	55. A Return

**Naru**

It was way too easy to lose track of time. I welcomed the feeling, it seems like lately time is the only thing I can think about. To have it pass without me worrying about was just… peaceful.

My eyes were closed. My fur was brushed lightly by a gentle breeze, another factor adding to the peace. I had my forelegs wrapped around a soft pillow of fur. My grip was likely tighter than it should have been all things considered, but it was hard to help myself. He felt warm, way warmer than ever before. That may have just been because it's been such a long time though, I wasn't used to holding someone like this.

I laid my head down on his head, nuzzling between his ears. He seemed as if he was resting. I didn't want to disturb him, however I could only hold myself back for so long. We technically shouldn't have been laying down in the open like this. We weren't even in the perimeter of the Nest. Neither of us wanted to move, so we didn't, regardless of our safety being at risk. _I think I'll be going through withdrawal for a while…_

I kept stroking up and down his back gently, even if I couldn't really tell whether it comforted him or annoyed him. At the very least, he seemed relaxed. His body felt tense, but he loosened up slowly but surely. The moisture on my chest stopped growing, another good sign. I had my own episode too, but I made sure that he couldn't tell. He looked as if he was in no condition to have me sobbing over his head. His body is… messed up. It was even more evident when I started touching him. His fur was singed, as if he slept in a fire. I could feel uneven textures under his fur too, likely more injuries. Not to mention his… his eye. I didn't get to look at it for long, but I didn't need to. It sent a shiver down my spine. As curious as I was, part of me didn't want to know what caused it.

 _We probably shouldn't be out here for much longer._

I slowly opened my eyes. It wasn't super bright outside, the sun seemed to have just started showing its face. I hesitantly lifted my head off of his, and pulled my forelegs from being wrapped around him. Glancing down at his face, I placed one of my paws on his cheek. It felt warm, like the rest of his body. It was a nice contrast to the cold air around us, despite the cold not really bugging me in the first place.

"Hey there." I said in a quiet voice. I watched one of his ears shake a little. He separated his head from my chest, and opened his eyes. I had a clear view of both eyes. One was the same red shade that the small umbreon had always held. The other was nothing close to that. Both of them traveled upwards as his head tilted, connecting with my own irises. I couldn't help but smile. Being this close to him brought that out of me with ease. "How are you feeling Kuro?"

He stared at me for a few moments, his gaze was filled with disbelief. I didn't push for him to talk, I would wait years if I needed to. _However, an answer would be reallllyyyyyy nice right about now buddy._

I heard Kuro clear his throat. His eyes weren't locked with mine anymore, he tilted them downwards."I-I'm alive." He answered. I paused like he did, and nearly snapped into laughter. I suppressed it into a light chuckle though.

"I can see that." My smile grew a little bit. I gently dragged my paw across his cheek, right under his blighted eye. Kuro tensed a little bit, making me feel the slightest tad guilty. The shivers I felt before though, they weren't present anymore.

"A few things have happened while I've been away." Kuro said, sounding almost ashamed. "That's one of them. I can't really… see out of that eye anymore. It's very… noticeable." He still didn't make eye contact. I took a few moments in silence to observe his eye alone, and then his entire face. "Sorry if it's… U-Unpleasant."

"I think it's cute." I said with a giggle. Kuro looked up at me, back to making eye contact. He looked perplexed, as if he was trying to solve a problem.

"You have to be kidding me." He replied.

"Nope. It matches the lighter parts of my fur, how would that be unpleasant to me?" I asked, tapping his nose with my paw. His face being washed with even more uncertainty amused me.

"Y-Yeah, I guess you're right." He said in an awkward tone, before turning his head away and sneezing. There was a long stall before either of us said anything. There was so much that both of us wanted to get out, but neither of us really knew how to. Despite how quiet the two of us were though, the air didn't exactly feel tentious. It's like the two of us were deep in thought. Kuro took a deep breath.

"Naru, I-"

"Hush." I interrupted him, putting a paw over his mouth. "We don't need to push it right now. I think we should… think for a little bit first. Then we can tell each other everything that's in our heads. If we rush it, then we might… overdo it with our emotions." I sighed. "If that makes any sense that is…"

Kuro put his paw over mine, pushing it away from his mouth. "I get what you mean. It can wait for now." He nodded.

"Oh thank arceus…" I let out a sigh of relief. "I don't think I'm ready to hear what you've been through." I stood up and stretched, ready to start actually being productive. _For a little bit at least._ Kuro followed my motion not too long after, letting out a few small coughs. His head turned from side to side. I don't know how long he's been this close to the Nest, but if it hasn't been more than a day or so, he was probably rusty with the surrounding area. We weren't very far out, but far enough for him to be a little confused and blurry. "Want me to lead the way back? I can picture a certain small creature excited to see you!" I exclaimed with a small giggle.

Kuro silently nodded. A very small smile formed on his face, but not nearly as bright as his typical smiles were. Funnily enough, I think it disappointed me. I shouldn't have expected him to be super chipper, but I couldn't lie, I was looking forward to seeing a goofy smile from him. Although… I was definitely being impatient. _Baby steps Naru, baby steps…_

With that, we began our brief walk to the Nest. Not many words were spoken, the two of us both seemed to be holding back. I'd love to just speak every word in my mind to him, but that would mean overwhelming him even more than he already seemed to be. I didn't have the details yet, but let me tell ya, that guy didn't hide his internal struggles too well. I could tell right away that there was something bigger in his mind, something bigger than coming back here. I wished that a certain someone gave me more details, but I would have to make do with what I already know. First and foremost, I needed to do everything in my power to get some of whatever is on Kuro's mind as far away from him as possible.

 _Which will be quite difficult considering that I have no clue what it is… But I can find out! I just need to… do something._ I shook my head at my own ramblings. _I don't suppose some of the inevitable venting that'll take place in the future will contain it, that would be quite helpful. Assuming I know how to react to whatever it is at least…_

My mind wandered from one place to the next. I wish I could say every thought in my head was positive and happy. I'll say that there were certainly more happy ones now, but not all of them glistened. I couldn't tell if any of my more negative thoughts came from me being realistic, or just kind of… preparing for the future. Last time something unexpected happened, it caught me off guard. It really caught me off guard. I can't be that vulnerable all the time. _Hopefully I hold myself to this…_ I really wanted to yell at myself. Probably wouldn't look too good if I started randomly screaming to the umbreon behind me though.

"Are you feeling well enough to walk this much? I know it's not super far, but still." I asked, if anything, in order to secure myself mentally.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." He replied, putting some comfort within me. "I've already walked, well… a lot. This won't be too big a deal."

"Wait wait, you walked a lot before this? In that condition?"

"I did, across a few different landscapes." He replied, as if nothing was wrong with that.

"You're… You're quite something." I sighed. "I'm surprised your legs aren't broken."

"I didn't run into much conflict before making it here." _Besides the conflict that took away half your eyesight that is…_ "I had some help from some unfamiliar faces. They made it a lot easier to progress." He informed.

"I'm glad you had some assistance at a few points, I don't want to think about you being alone in that state…" I shivered. _He probably wouldn't have survi- No. Nononono. Bad thoughts. Go away._

I didn't get a reply, though he probably nodded behind me or something. I started to space out a little bit, an image of a large green pokemon popping into my head briefly.

"Who was that guy? The one who looked all tired and attacked you?" I asked, very curious. When I was strolling around close to where I found Kuro and my eyes met that pokemon, I nearly shot an icicle into his neck. I barely held myself back, but dear Arceus, I was on the verge.

"I have no idea." He said, his voice trailing a little bit. "Maybe… a Void member or something?"

"I dunno. Would a Void member run at you and attack in that kind of state?" I questioned. I hated the Void, sure. But they weren't dumb enough to do something like that. Most of them anyway. _Other than that idiot at least._

"Good point. He implied that I… took something? I think?" Kuro sounded confused. "It's such a weird thing to hear from someone I don't have any relation to."

"Didja rob a family on the way here or something?" I asked, tilting my head back sarcastically.

"Nobody was robbed by me…" He sighed quietly, which made me giggle. "I'm wondering if he came from a group I've been near. Maybe something was taken and I'm being mistaken for the culprit."

"If it's as simple as a misunderstanding, maybe it's good I didn't- Never mind." I cleared my throat. "Hopefully he's gone for good. I don't want you to be attacked in a place that's supposed to be safe."

"Safety sounds nice…" Kuro said quietly. The way he spoke those words sent an uncomfortable tingle down my body. The outskirts of the Nest came into my vision as my mind wandered. I picked my head up high and stopped walking, turning around to face Kuro.

"You ready to see some familiar faces?" I asked him, smiling brightly. Kuro, instead of replying immediately, dipped his head a little. He took a deep breath, and proceeded to shake his head.

"A-As ready as I'll ever be." He said, his voice almost trembling. I walked towards him, standing about an inch away.

"What in the world have you been through?" I said out loud, accidentally if I'm being honest. Kuro closed his eyes and kept his head slanted.

"It's… a lot to explain all at once." He said before pausing. "I would assume you already know how it started, when I went off the radar initially." I gave Kuro a nod.

"You and Vero got ambushed by the Void, two really strong pokemon." I stated.

"And… Is that all you know?" He further pushed.

"Well… Sort of. I don't know details, but I've heard… some things." I replied, recalling two very important conversations I had.

"Define some things please." Kuro requested, looking up at me with his eyes opened once more. I caught myself staring at his eye for a second, but I swiftly tried to divert my attention back to answering.

"I know you went through some kind of… abuse. I would assume from more than just the one who told me." Kuro tilted his head in a questioning manner.

"You talked to someone who was… participating?"

"I did, the same joke that we ran into when we went back to Myriad. I ran into him, and he tried attacking me, but I got him to spill some-" Before I could finish, Kuro coughed. He coughed harshely, he head leaning forward almost as if he gagged on something. Obviously concerned, I brought a forepaw to his shoulder to steady him. "A-Are you okay?"

Kuro took a deep breath, followed by shallow, light ones. I felt him shaking, and he definitely wasn't standing strangely. I lightly pushed down on his shoulder, encouraging him to sit down. He did just as I invited him to, and sat on the ground in front of me. I followed his motion in front of him, placing both of my forepaws on his shoulders now. Kuro kept his head tilted down until he caught his breath, before finally turning it up to me.

"S-Sorry…" He said, a tired tone in his voice.

"No, no, don't apologize. What's the matter?" I asked, wondering if he was just exhausted, or something else was happening.

"N-Nothing, I think I just… I'm not feeling the best." He answered.

"That sounded worse than just some sort of random cough." I said, putting a paw on his cheek. It was still warm, just like when I felt it before. A thought popped into my mind, causing me to connect a few dots. "You could be sick from something." I suggested.

"Sick?" He repeated, his body feeling tense. "Y-Yeah, I think that's possible. I haven't had much of a chance to take proper care of myself."

"Exactly. Plus your body isn't suited to being out in the cold for however long it has. You haven't been warming yourself up, have you?" I asked, trying to balance Kuro with my paws.

"N-Not exactly…" He replied, averting his eyes. I gave a small sigh.

"For someone who's spent so much time on his own, you don't focus on your health nearly enough." I took my paws off of Kuro and turned around, now facing away from him. "Let me carry you in."

Kuro hesitated. "I-I'm sure I can-"

"Nope. I'm carrying you. Do it willingly, or I'll knock you out and I'll take you in that way." I bluntly stated. Not long after I resorted to threats, I felt Kuro's paws on my shoulders, and felt his weight press against my back. _Heh, mission accomplished._

I stood up, lifting Kuro up on my back. His body was warm all over, there was no way he wasn't sick with something. I immediately continued my walk to the violet gates of the Nest, glancing up and down the familiar purple walls. We used to have guards around here, but our new methods of security don't require any Ravens outside. I leaned my forehead against the wall.

" _I'm back with another Raven, let us in please."_

I felt Kuro grip onto me a little bit tighter than he had been. It was a nervous grip for sure. I thought he'd seem a lot more excited to be back here, but then again, he's sick with something. I stuck that sentiment in my head to give myself an excuse for what was wrong with how Kuro was acting.

A gentle breeze washed over the two of us, coming along with a small feeling of lightheadedness, only lasting for around a second. One moment we were outside the walls of the Nest, the next we were within its interior, courtesy of the Nest's new security system. Surrounding us was a rather blank room, the walls striped with black and white coloring, spreading horizontally on all four walls. It was still a new addition as of now, so we haven't gotten around to decorating. _We should hire someone for that._

To our right was a door, made of light brown wood. Once more, it wasn't exactly the most aesthetically pleasing thing as of now. I could feel Kuro's heartbeat on my back, I've been paying attention to it since I picked him up. It was faster now. Something was making him nervous, and I had no idea what it was. I stared at the door for a few moments, not walking to it quite yet.

"Are you sure you're okay right now?" I asked, not turning my head. "Like, other than the sickness I mean. You seem as if you're not up for this yet." I didn't get an immediate reply. I did feel him shift around on my back a little bit though.

"If I'm being honest, I don't really know…" He finally said in a quiet voice. It confused me why Kuro would be nervous at all in the first place, seeing as he wasn't meeting anyone new. As bothersome as it really was in my mind, he didn't seem in the right state to talk about it right now. Sick and exhausted isn't the most optimal feelings to accompany a detailed explanation of your thoughts.

"It's alright. Don't worry!" I said cheerfully. It came naturally to me to show some enthusiasm now that I had Kuro here with me. Not to mention, he really needed it. "At the very least, will you be okay with seeing Shiro? She kinda lives with us ya know."

"I'll be okay. I just…" He paused once more. "I-I'll mange." He shuddered a little bit. I could feel every little nervous motion he made. I looked down at the ground, thinking about how I could comfort him about… whatever he was nervous about. It was a lot harder to do when I had no clue what was bothering him in the first place. Also a lot harder since I haven't, well I haven't had to do it in a while.

"I can get you to our room without talking to anyone on the way there. We might get some weird looks, but we can get there! As long as we don't get spotted by anyone we usually talk to." I suggested, smiling lightly as if he'd be able to see it. "Shiro is gonna be happy to see you back! She might try and, you know, tackle you. I'll try to stop her so she doesn't irritate your injuries." _And I'll also have to find an excuse to cover for why Kuro has injuries in the first place…_

"That sounds… nice." Kuro said, his body feeling ever so slightly less tense.

"She's missed you a ton, just as much as I have. If you're not feeling well, I'm sure seeing a smile on the little one's face will cheer you up at least a little!" I exclaimed, exciting myself to see the two interact with one another again. Excited for all three of us to be close together again.

Kuro dug his head into the back of my neck. I tilted my head a little, turning it back towards him. I couldn't turn it all the way around without breaking my neck sadly. His breath was warm, and the way he released it felt much more relaxed than normal. I could only hope that he was feeling at least a little bit comfortable.

"It'll be nice to spend time with you two. Really nice…" Kuro whispered, almost as if he was talking to himself. I let out a small giggle and looked forward again.

"Shard wouldn't kill me if I just sort of… pretended that I wasn't supposed to meet with her today I'm sure. I don't want to leave you if I can help it." I felt Kuro nod against my neck.

"I-If you say so."

I took a few steps forward, putting one of my forepaws on the door before us. _Be ready to get stared at…_

I slowly pushed the door open, walking out into the Nest. We weren't too far from our room, so luckily we shouldn't have to run into too many pokemon on the way there. _I hope so anyway. Kuro probably doesn't want too much attention drawn to himself. Nor do I really…_

I know that I had never carried Kuro like this before, but he felt… light. A lot lighter than I expected. Granted he was a small umbreon, but it was almost unnatural how light he was. Almost as if he hadn't gotten up and worked his muscles at all, while at the same time not eating regularly. _Now that I think about it, the latter sounds… probable._

A small shudder shot down my body. I tried my best to dismiss all of the various thoughts that raided my head over and over. I already told myself that thinking about whatever conditions Kuro was in right after he went missing were… obviously not good. Thinking as to what degree he suffered to wasn't something I should be doing. It didn't help anyone, all it did was make me worry that much more. The damage was already done it seemed. If there's a risk of any lingering effects on Kuro, then that's best diagnosed by a doctor, not me.

"Are you alright?" I heard a quiet voice behind me, coming from the umbreon on my back.

"Yeah… Yeah I'm good." I replied, taking a breath to calm my unintentional shivering. Now wasn't the time for anything but getting Kuro to a place so he could rest. _Uggghhh, if only I could drive a nail in my brain to stop it from thinking._

The rest of the walk back was accompanied by silence. It didn't feel awkward or tense, but there wasn't anything I wanted to talk about that didn't involve pouring out half of the thoughts in my head. He needed rest before I took what very well could be hours to get all of this off my chest. As I predicted, we didn't come across too many others, nor anyone we would be familiar with. Weird looks from the few we did pass, but that wasn't a big deal. Just a little… annoying.

Without much time passing, the two of us made it to the door to our room. I pressed a paw against the firm wooden frame, and slowly pushed. Without resistance, the door opened easily. _I totally forgot to lock this, didn't I?_

I took a step into our room and looked around for a familiar small vulpix, spotting her on her bed. She was curled up into a small ball, peacefully resting. She had been helping with a few small jobs around the Nest, moving all over the place. It was her choice, and she was probably going crazy sitting here and not being able to do anything before that. However, she came back much more tired than she'd usually be. It was definitely good for her in the long run.

I waltzed over to Kuro's bed. It's been empty for ages, not moved or touched since he got taken away. Kuro rolled off of my back, landing on his paws in a shaky manner. He stood beside me and turned his head to Shiro. He blankly stared for a few moments, almost as if he wasn't focused on anything in particular, just looking forward. A small smile crept on his face. Seeing Shiro again had to give him some kind of happiness I'm sure, or at least, calmness.

"She'll be ecstatic when she wakes up, so be ready for an energetic little one to be all over you." I told Kuro in an amusing tone.

"How… has she been? Over all this time?" He asked, his voice quiet.

"Well she's still the same little vulpix. Curious, talkative, energetic, shy, she's still a ball of sunshine." I answered, also turning my head to the resting pokemon. "She's even started doing some work around the Nest so she can stretch her legs a little. Nothing super grueling, just enough to keep her active."

"Anything new about her memories and that like?"

"Nothing. I don't see any of her memories magically coming back anytime soon. This doesn't seem like something time alone will cure." _Not so far anyway._

"I see." Kuro paused for a few moments. "I hope it doesn't bother her that much." It never seemed that Shiro's lack of memories was a mental block from her. I was very thankful for that, and I'm sure Kuro would be too. I can't imagine what it feels like to lose memories in the first place.

"Well, there's always time to make new memories to help her!" I exclaimed, though not loud enough to wake the sleepy vulpix. "That's kind of our job, isn't it?"

Kuro tilted his head down a little bit, his smile coming out once again. "You're right."

"I know I'm right. Have some faith in your partner." I put a paw on the back of Kuro's neck. "Why don't you lay down and rest yourself before your fever grows more fervent than it already is?"

Kuro lightly nodded and set himself down on his bed, laying on his side. I took a quick glance at his body, his charred fur looking more visible than I thought. It made me wonder if those burns came from the initial attack him and Vero had to deal with, or something that may have happened after that.

"It's still really early, sooooo doctors probably aren't available unless you're actually dying. I'll have to notify them as soon as I can so you can get checked out." I informed Kuro.

"Thank you." Kuro replied. His facial expression wasn't the same as before. He now looked almost… absentminded. I wasn't expecting him to adjust back to being here immediately, especially since there's obviously more clutter in his head than an ancient trash dump. Before he reached any amount of comfortability, he needed to get that out of his system. Or at the very least, he needed to relax instead of letting himself focus on anything messing with his head. _Well, no better time than now to help with that._

I walked over to where Kuro was laying, and plopped myself down in front of him, rolling towards him until I was within an inch. I wrapped my paws around him and set my head against his chest, just as he was before we walked back here. He felt no more or less warm than he was before. _At least his sickness doesn't seem to be getting worse._

"Are you okay Naru..?" Kuro asked, likely confused.

"I was jealous of you and wanted to get even." I dug my head into Kuro's chest and smiled gleefully. "This looked really comfortable, I'm happy to know that I was right." I let out a quiet giggle.

I didn't get an immediate reply from Kuro, but I did feel his foreleg settle on my body. He held onto me in the same manner as I was to him, sending a wave of relaxation through me. _Now isn't the time to fall asleep…_

"I won't force you to talk about anything you don't want to, but if there's any time to go over all the things in our heads; better now than later." I took a breath, resting my head against Kuro as I spoke.

"You're… probably right." He replied in an unsure tone.

"In that case, as much as I don't want to ask this question: What exactly did you go through after being taken away?" Kuro took a moment to gather himself.

"I got taken to some place with a bunch of Void members. It was different from the one we saw on our first task here, I didn't recognize it." As Kuro spoke, I tensed up a little. "It didn't seem like there were a lot of members there, mainly the higher ups."

"Did they just sorta… keep you in captivity?"

"That's only part of it." Kuro took a deep breath. "The one who took me there in the first place, the delphox, she… did a lot of things to me."

"Such as..?" I almost didn't provoke more details, but I didn't want Kuro to feel as if he couldn't be open about anything.

"My eyes." Kuro replied. "That seemed to be her most common target. She just burned them over and over. It seemed like she was taking notes on something as she did it, but I'm not sure as to what she was recording."

"And that resulted in one of your eyes not working?"

"Yes. She burned one more intensely than the other, and well, now I can't see out of it. But I think I'm adapting." He stated. "She didn't only focus on my eyes, but the burns on the rest of my body weren't quite as intense. I might still have scars from it, but nothing more than that."

"Well… at least it wasn't as bad as it could have been." I said with a shiver. "Was she the only one who..?"

"There were a few." Kuro laid his head on top of mine. "The only ones who did anything really bad were her and Luna. The rest was all tolerable."

"Why would even her of all pokemon come out for something like that..?"

"I think… she gets some kind of sick pleasure from it. More so than the rest of the Void. That's what it seems like to me." Kuro held me a little tighter than before. I couldn't tell if he did it on purpose or not.

"What did she do..?"

"She just… re-opened some old wounds. That's it." Kuro spoke fast and concisely. He obviously didn't want to linger on the topic. I didn't need any more details to know what he meant by that, and thus, I wasn't going to pry.

"How in the world did you get away?" Kuro was held in an area with not just Void members, but dangerous ones. He couldn't have fought his way out of that.

"I… I don't know." Kuro sounded confused as he spoke. "I woke up in a different place with much more friendly faces. I was somewhere else all of a sudden. It feels like there's a missing segment when I try to recollect what happened around that time. I have no idea how I ended up where I did." _Interesting…_

"Where exactly did you end up anyways?"

"In a small group of nomads. I met a few of them, and one helped with my injuries when they were still fresh. I'm thankful that the place I ended up had so many pokemon willing to help." _Trust me buddy, I'm thankful too._

"What did you do over there? While you were with the nomads?" I curiously asked. I didn't get an immediate answer though.

"I think… I don't know if I can go over that right now." I nodded.

"That's alright. Work at your own pace." _Looks like I found one of the roots._

"What have you been up to?" Kuro asked.

"The usual. Training, random missions, eating, sleeping. It's been boring here without you." _I can leave 'moping around' out of that list I'm sure._

"I'm sorry for being gone for so long…" Kuro apologized in a sobre tone. I almost couldn't believe that I'd get any sort of apology after the macabre experiences that he just went through. Then I remembered who I was talking to.

"You've got nothing to apologize for. You say that like this was at all in your control." _You don't need to apologize for something so unpredictable._

"Still… I'm sorry." I just let out a small sigh and crawled a little bit, coming face to face with Kuro. I put a paw on his cheek, looking into his eyes. It was strange how quickly I found myself getting used to his new eye blemish. It really was pretty to me.

"Take a second to calm down. Nobody here is ever going to chastise you for any of this. I get that you're feeling guilty, but I don't think anything could have prevented this." Kuro tilted his head down, avoiding my eyes.

"If I had handled the situation better, maybe none of that would have taken place. I could have come back safely with Vero and just… everything could have been normal."

"How could you have done anything different there? Suddenly be immune to fire hot enough to eviscerate someone?" _I think it's a miracle you didn't succumb to that fate…_

"I don't know, but I'm sure there was some kind of way." I didn't see Kuro as someone who would have such a guilty conscience over an event beyond his control.

"Even if there was theoretically a way to magically get out of that situation with no harm done, that's not what happened, and you can't be blamed for it. You did everything you could, and from what I've heard, you really did help the situation there as much as you could. Nobody could ask for you do even more." I slowly moved my paw from Kuro's cheek to his foreleg. "Nobody is going to blame you for anything that happened. Especially not me."

In a bit of an impulsive motion, I raised my head a slight bit, and moved it closer to Kuro. My eyes slowly closed, and gently kissed Kuro's forehead, holding the position in silence for a few moments. I felt my face warm up almost to match Kuro's fever. I slowly moved my head back down, back to making eye contact.

We just sort of stared at one another for a little bit. Not a word was spoken, nor did either of us move. There was something… calming about it. I felt calm, despite my face likely being visibly red, I felt calm. _It's… hard to keep eye contact like this._

"I'll take your word for it." Kuro said, breaking the silence. "If there's anyone to believe, you're the most trustworthy to me. I hope you're right and I'm just… overthinking."

I smiled and nodded. "Good, you better believe me." I giggled quietly and nuzzled against Kuro's cheek. Kuro closed his eyes, looking even more relaxed than before.

"I'm not going to vanish like that again." He said quietly, almost like he was talking to himself.

"Bold of you to assume I'd let you disappear." I replied, rubbing the side of Kuro's head blissfully.

* * *

Hello Readers!

It's been a long time for a variety of reasons, but I'm glad to have this chapter that's been in the works for over a month finally uploaded. I had to change quite a few future events in this story from my original draft recently, and let's just say that took a lot of time. A lot of other things have stopped me from making good progress, but I can safely say that rust will be wearing off very soon. I hope so anyway. This is assuming that no more random things pop up that cause me to swap my focus from writing.

I have to give a special thank you to everyone who has still left reviews and also sent me any messages over the time I've been stalled. That seriously helps my motivation more than I can verbally express, so thank you! I appreciate every last bit of critique and support, it helps keep me sane. I'll hopefully get the next chapter out on a normal schedule!

See You Next Chapter!


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